Post by Hickman on Nov 23, 2005 4:13:30 GMT -5
[shadow=red,left,300]Asylum cheat compensation fight [/shadow]
By JOHN KAYChief Reporter
AN ASYLUM cheat has been granted legal aid to sue the Home Office for £50,000, it was revealed yesterday.
Croatian Goran Sabul, 37, is claiming a five-week stay in custody made him depressed.
Sabul was arrested [glow=red,2,300]11 YEARS [/glow]after he had been given permission to stay in the UK for two months.
He has now launched a legal battle for compensation for his brief detention.
Sabul has so far received £5,000 in legal aid.
But Home Secretary Charles Clarke is determined to fight the action.
A senior Home Office official described the claim as “compensation culture gone mad”.
The illegal immigrant says he developed “major depression” after being held at top security Paddington Green police station and the Harmondsworth Detention Centre three years ago.
Sabul, who now lives in West London, came to the UK in 1991 as a visitor.
Within a fortnight he applied for asylum, arguing he had been persecuted because of his “ethnicity” and would be branded a draft evader if he returned.
The Home Office refused his claim. A special adjudicator later said it was “credible” — but also rejected it.
Sabul then went to the Immigration Appeals Tribunal, who dismissed the application in 2000 and refused him leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Two years later he was arrested by immigration officers at the flat he shared with his wife Vlatka.
Sabul argued that sending him back to Croatia would violate his human rights and he was granted bail by an adjudicator in October 2002.
His High Court writ states his detention made him suffer “a significant worsening of the psychiatric condition from which he suffers, namely major depressive disorder.”
A senior Home Office source said: “We’re determined to fight this all the way. It’s compensation culture gone mad.”
The Legal Services Commission said it had a “statutory duty” to fund the case.
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005540401,00.html
By JOHN KAYChief Reporter
AN ASYLUM cheat has been granted legal aid to sue the Home Office for £50,000, it was revealed yesterday.
Croatian Goran Sabul, 37, is claiming a five-week stay in custody made him depressed.
Sabul was arrested [glow=red,2,300]11 YEARS [/glow]after he had been given permission to stay in the UK for two months.
He has now launched a legal battle for compensation for his brief detention.
Sabul has so far received £5,000 in legal aid.
But Home Secretary Charles Clarke is determined to fight the action.
A senior Home Office official described the claim as “compensation culture gone mad”.
The illegal immigrant says he developed “major depression” after being held at top security Paddington Green police station and the Harmondsworth Detention Centre three years ago.
Sabul, who now lives in West London, came to the UK in 1991 as a visitor.
Within a fortnight he applied for asylum, arguing he had been persecuted because of his “ethnicity” and would be branded a draft evader if he returned.
The Home Office refused his claim. A special adjudicator later said it was “credible” — but also rejected it.
Sabul then went to the Immigration Appeals Tribunal, who dismissed the application in 2000 and refused him leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Two years later he was arrested by immigration officers at the flat he shared with his wife Vlatka.
Sabul argued that sending him back to Croatia would violate his human rights and he was granted bail by an adjudicator in October 2002.
His High Court writ states his detention made him suffer “a significant worsening of the psychiatric condition from which he suffers, namely major depressive disorder.”
A senior Home Office source said: “We’re determined to fight this all the way. It’s compensation culture gone mad.”
The Legal Services Commission said it had a “statutory duty” to fund the case.
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005540401,00.html