Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian ••
All in your wardrobe? 5
Moths decline faster
in woods than cities
Page 23Game over: Becker,
displaying ‘no
humility’, jailed for
two and half years
Amelia HillBoris Becker was sentenced yesterday
to two and a half years in prison for
hiding millions of pounds’ worth of
assets after being made bankrupt in
June 2017.
Sentencing the former tennis
champion, the judge, Deborah Taylor,
said: “I take into account what has
been described as your ‘fall from
grace’. You have lost your career and
reputation and all of your property as
a result of your bankruptcy.”
But she added: “You have not
shown remorse, acceptance of your
guilt and have sought to distance
yourself from your off ending and
your bankruptcy. While I accept
your humiliation as part of theproceedings, there has been no
humility.”
Becker, who was sentenced under
the Insolvency Act, will serve half the
full prison term. He was found guilty
of four charges by a jury at Southwark
crown court in London this month
but acquitted of a further 20 counts
relating to his 2017 bankruptcy. He
had faced a maximum sentence of
seven years in prison.
In 2002, he received a two-year
suspended sentence in Germany for
tax evasion and attempted tax eva-
sion worth €1.7m (£1.4m). Referringto that conviction, Taylor said: “You
did not heed the warning you were
given and the chance you were given
by the suspended sentence and that
is a signifi cant aggravating factor.”
Becker, wearing a striped tie in
Wimbledon’s purple and green
colours, walked into the courthouse
with his partner Lilian de Carvalho
Monteiro. His son Noah also attended.
The six-time grand slam cham-
pion had denied all the charges,
saying he had cooperated with trus-
tees tasked with securing his assets- even off ering up his wedding ring –
and had acted on expert advice.
But at yesterday’s sentencing hear-
ing , Rebecca Chalkley, prosecuting,
said Becker had acted “deliberately
and dishonestly” and that he was
“still seeking to blame others”.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, defending,
argued for leniency, saying his client
had not spent money on a “lavish life-
style” but rather on child support,
rent and legal and business expenses.
Becker, he told the court, ha d experi-
enced “public humiliation” and ha d
no future earnings potential.
Becker ’s bankruptcy stemmed
from a €4.6 m loan from a private
bank in 2013, as well as about $1.6 m
borrowed from a British businessman
the year after, the court had heard.
During the trial he said the $50 m
(£40m) he earned during his career
had been swallowed up by payments
for an “expensive divorce” and debts
when he lost large chunks of his
income after retirement.
But the judge took into account
the lengths to which Becker went
to avoid paying his debts, includ-
ing failing to declare his share in a
£1m property in his hometown of
Leimen, near Heidelberg, Germany,
hiding an €825,000 bank loan, worth
€1.3m with interest, and concealing
75,000 shares in a tech business val-
ued at £66,000.
Matthew Carter, a partner at the
national bankruptcy centre of the
international audit, tax and advisory
fi rm Mazars, said: “Today’s verdict
reaffi rms the serious consequences
for those who fail to comply with
their legal obligations as a bankrupt
under the Insolvency Act.
“Mr Becker failed to declare
signifi cant assets in his bankruptcy
and this sentence serves as a stark
warning to those who attempt to hide
their assets. There are no winners in
this unfortunate case, and it is imper-
ative that anybody facing fi nancial
diffi culty seeks specialist insolvency
advice as early as possible to avoid
issues escalating to this extent.”
Dean Beale, the chief executive of
the Insolvency Service, said: “Boris
Becker’s sentence clearly demon-
strates that concealing assets in
bankruptcy is a serious off ence for
which we will prosecute and bring
off enders to justice.”Legal aid curbs
left thousands
facing domestic
abuse, study
suggests
Aubrey Allegretti
Political correspondentTens of thousands of domestic abuse
survivors have been “forced to con-
tinue living under the shadow of their
abusers” in the decade since access
to legal aid was scaled back, research
suggests.
About 34,000 people are estimated
to have been denied support allowing
them to seek orders to help remove
abusers from the family home or
prevent them from returning at will.
The House of Commons library
also calculated that since the law was
changed 10 years ago, the proportion
of domestic abuse cases funded by
legal aid had fallen from 75% to 47%.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow
attorney general, blamed the “wil-
ful cruelty” of the 2010-2015 coalition
government, which she said had been
“perpetuated by their successors in
the current cabinet”.
She said urgent reform of legal aid
was needed to “avoid a second lost
decade for the survivors of domes-
tic abuse and their children”.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing, and
Punishment of Off enders Act of 2012
sought to impose capital and income
limits for applicants for civil legal aid.
On the 10th anniversary of it
becoming law, the Commons library
was asked to review the impact. It
found that real-terms spending on
civil legal aid for domestic abuse cases
fell by 37% from 2010-11 to 2020 -21.
Offi cials said it was “not possible
to say exactly how many people have
become ineligible who would other-
wise have been able”. But they found
the ratio of domestic abuse cases
that received legal aid compared
with those without it fell from 0.
in 2012 -13 to 0.5 in 2020 -21.
If the ratio had stayed the same,
the library forecast that 41,000 more
people would have been eligible for
legal aid in domestic abuse cases.
Thornberry said the law change
had been pushed through by
ministers who were “hellbent on
driving through their austerity
agenda on the backs of the most
vulnerable in society, even at the
expense of their duty to protect the
safety of women”. She said tens of
thousands of women were being
“forced to continue living under the
shadow of their abusers”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson
said: “More than 95% of applications
for legal aid in domestic abuse cases
are successful. The Domestic Abuse
Act is ... redefi ning economic abuse,
improving protection for victims and
bringing more perpetrators to justice.”$50m
Boris Becker’s career earnings,
which he said had been swallowed
up by his divorce and debts▼ Boris Becker and his partner,
Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, arrive
at court yesterday for his sentencing
PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN SIBLEY/REUTERSJerusalem review
Rylance is terrifi c, but
the play shows its age
Page 23