Albanian teen avoids automatic deportation after Northampton Crown Court judge orders him to serve eleven months for fake documents charges

An Albanian 19-year-old who entered the UK on the back of a lorry has been saved from automatic deportation after a judge gave him a sentence one month under the threshold.

Rubin Bajra held his head in his hands and was visibly upset as he appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday (February 24) to face charges of being in possession of fake documents.

He knew that should he be given a 12-month jail term it would mean that he would inevitably be put on the next plane home on his release.

The court heard Bajra, of no fixed abode, was stopped by Northamptonshire Police just after midnight on January 25 driving a Hyundai. He told officers he was Russian. But then he showed them his own Albanian identity card.

When they searched his wallet they discovered a Greek driving licence and a Greek passport, both in false names but with his picture on them.

There were also two Monzo bank cards in the same name and two small bags of cocaine. He did not have any valid motor vehicle insurance.

Prosecuting, Ben Gow, said that immigration services told police they had no record of Bajra and he’d entered the UK hidden in a lorry three months previously.

The court was told he has no previous convictions either in Albania or this country, and that he was still expected to have to repay the debt to those smugglers that helped him get into the country.

He had been working in the UK in order to send money home to his family.

His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo asked Mr Gow what sentence triggered automatic deportation, and he was told that the threshold was a jail term of 12 months or more.

Giving him credit for his guilty pleas, Judge Mayo gave him a ten month sentence for the identity document charges and a further one month, to be served consecutively, for possession of cocaine.

He said: “You’ll serve half of the eleven month sentence in prison taking into account time already served and I expect when you are released there will be arrangements made but I’m certainly not going to order you to be deported.”