A Nigerian fraudster who scammed women out of nearly £200,000 in an elaborate romance scheme has successfully avoided deportation after a tribunal ruled that his family’s health needs could not be adequately met in his home country.
Emmanuel Jack, 35, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2014 after deceiving six women he met on dating websites into transferring him a total of £186,000.
Posing as an architect, Jack preyed on vulnerable women, convincing them to send him large sums of money.
In 2022, eight years after his release from prison, the Home Office moved to deport Jack back to Nigeria, where he had lived until the age of 10 before relocating to the UK with his parents.
However, he challenged the deportation order, arguing that it violated his right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in London ruled in his favor, concluding that deportation would be “unduly harsh” on his British wife and children, both of whom suffer from severe medical conditions requiring specialised care.
The judges determined that Nigeria was unlikely to provide the “bespoke” level of medical treatment currently available to Jack’s family under the NHS.
Court documents revealed that Jack’s case is one of many where foreign criminals have successfully resisted deportation by citing human rights protections.
The ruling comes amid a record backlog of 41,987 outstanding immigration appeals, the majority of which are based on human rights claims.
The backlog has surged by almost 500 percent since early 2022, posing a challenge to Labour’s pledge to expedite the removal of illegal migrants.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is now considering restrictions to prevent foreign criminals and illegal migrants from using Article 8 of the ECHR to evade deportation.
Jack arrived in Britain in 1997 and was studying business at the University of Salford when he orchestrated his online frauds.
Using aliases such as John Creed, John Windsor, and Johnnie Carlo Rissi, he targeted women under false pretenses, persuading them to send him money.
He was arrested, convicted, and jailed in March 2014. Before his conviction, Jack had successfully applied for British citizenship, which the Home Office later revoked.
In November 2022, he was formally notified of his deportation order.
Following his release from prison, Jack married a British woman and fathered two children.
The tribunal—comprising judges Victor Rae-Reeves and Luke Bulpitt—was informed of the severe health challenges facing his family.
His youngest child, an 18-month-old born prematurely, has significant developmental issues and requires continuous medical supervision and specialist NHS care. His six-year-old daughter also has vision impairments.
The tribunal ruled that deporting Jack’s family would cause excessive hardship.
“Moving to Nigeria would significantly disrupt that care, frustrate ongoing investigations and end the consistency of care that they have each been receiving to date. We consider that even if treatment is available, it is considerably harder to get treatment for all three of them in the same location,” the ruling stated as quoted by the Telegraph UK.
It further emphasised Jack’s essential role in his children’s lives, describing him as a “loving and very hands-on father” whose absence would negatively impact their well-being.
“We find that [Mr Jack] helps both children with their medical needs and therapies and his absence would potentially have a deleterious effect on their health because of the limitations that [his wife] may face in fulfilling such practical tasks,” the tribunal noted.
“We conclude that, given the extremely close relationships that, in these particular circumstances [Mr Jack] shares with [his family], [his] separation from the family as a result of deportation would have a very great emotional and psychological impact on them which goes far beyond the impact that might be experienced where there is not such a close and unbroken shared history.”
Responding to the ruling, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We strongly believed this individual, with a criminal conviction of fraud, should not remain in the UK, which is why deportation efforts were clearly made, and this case was contested in court.
“Foreign nationals who commit heinous crimes should be in no doubt that we will do everything to make sure they are not free on Britain’s streets, including removal from the UK at the earliest possible opportunity.
“Since the election we’ve removed 2,925 foreign criminals, a 21% increase on the same period 12 months prior.”
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