A Nigerian romance fraudster who tricked women into paying him almost £200,000 has been spared deportation after a judge ruled that the healthcare system in Nigeria could not meet the medical needs of his wife and children.
Emmanuel Jack, 35, was jailed for three years in 2014 after he posed as an architect on dating websites and tricked six vulnerable women into paying him £186,000, according to Mail Online.
In 2022, the Home Office determined that he should be sent back to Nigeria, the country he left with his parents when he was 10, prompting Jack to mount a legal bid to remain in the UK.
An immigration and asylum tribunal in London has found in his favour, ruling that deportation would be unduly harsh on Mr. Jack's British wife and children, who suffer from complex medical issues and are reliant on his care.
Tribunal judges Victor Rae-Reeves and Luke Bulpitt heard that his wife has medical issues arising from pregnancy.
His 18-month-old son, who was born prematurely, has serious development issues that require close supervision and specialist care, while his six-year-old daughter suffers from eyesight problems, the tribunal was told.
Mr Jack's wife has a 16-year-old daughter from a previous relationship for whom he also provides care, the tribunal heard. The daughter outlined the 'huge role' Mr. Jack plays in her life in a letter, where she suggested 'the family would fall apart without him'.
'We have found that [the wife and two children] are all receiving long-term care for acute medical conditions,' the judges said.
'For each of them, that care involves regular review from consultants, detailed ongoing investigations, and a significant treatment regime.
'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.
'Even so, we consider that it would be unduly harsh for [them] to each leave their regular consultants and multidisciplinary teams who know them and their conditions well, to test the vagaries of the Nigerian health system.
'In particular, we have found that there are ongoing and serious investigations in relation to [Mr. Jack's son] and, even if care for him is available in Nigeria, it is unlikely to be the bespoke multidisciplinary attention he currently benefits from.'
Mr Jack came to Britain in 1997 and was granted indefinite leave to remain. He went on to become a business student at the University of Salford.
However, between 2011 and 2012 he targeted 'lonely' women in the UK and in the USA, working with a co-offender to carry out the fraudulent campaign.
He used aliases including John Creed, John Windsor, and Johnnie Carlo Rissi to persuade women to send him money.
After his arrest and before his conviction, Mr Jack successfully applied for British citizenship.
He was jailed for three years in March 2014. The Home Office later reviewed and then revoked his British citizenship, before informing him in November 2022 that he would be deported.
Following his release from prison, the tribunal heard, he met a British woman to who he has now been married for more than six years.
Mr Jack argued 'deportation would have an unduly harsh effect on his partner and children and amount to a disproportionate interference with the private life he had established in the United Kingdom'.
It was heard that there are 'exceptionally close bonds in the family', with the family's priest stating that 'deportation would have a deleterious effect on family life and would be disastrous'.
'Deportation would tear apart a loving family,' said the priest.
The tribunal accepted that the medical evidence was indicative of Mr Jack's 'deep involvement in the care of [his children]', finding him to be a 'loving and very hands-on father who plays a key role in their upbringing'.
The tribunal also acknowledged that 'the medical challenges the family face have led to them becoming a particularly close-knit family'.
'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', said the panel.
'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.
'We find that the strength and depth of [his] relationships with his wife and children and the close involvement he has had in their care over a prolonged period mean it is highly likely that the young children in particular would suffer an emotional, psychological and practical impact as a result of [his] removal that is unduly harsh.
'Weighing all these factors and having due regard for the public interest in the deportation of foreign criminals... We are nonetheless satisfied that the effect of the deportation of [Mr Jack] would be unduly harsh on [his wife and children].'
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