A criminal from Portugal who has been jailed twice in the UK has been spared deportation as his child might have autism.
Mauro Rodrigues, 20, was handed a deportation order from the Home Office following a series of convictions for driving offences.
In one incident, the 20-year-old displayed “breathtaking disregard” for the law and the safety of others as he sped through a 30mph zone at 70mph.
He was imprisoned for 12 months in a young offenders institute, and just weeks after his release, he was imprisoned again.
Jadah Charles-Williams, the child’s mother, said the two-year-old was currently waiting to have an autism assessment
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This time, he was behind bars for nine weeks after he drove while disqualified.
Rodrigues, who came to Britain with his mother aged one, appealed against his deportation but was initially rejected by a lower immigration tribunal.
However, the Immigration and Asylum Chamber overruled this decision after new evidence emerged surrounding his child - who he had with his British girlfriend.
The two-year-old child had developmental issues and showed signs of autism, so it was ruled that it would be “unduly harsh” for the father to be sent back to Portugal and away from his child.
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Rodrigues was handed a deportation order from the Home Office following a series of convictions for driving offences
GettyDaniel Sternberg, the deputy judge of the upper tribunal, said: “In his written statement [Rodrigues] records that [the child’s] nursery have become concerned about [their] development and have made referrals to the NHS speech and language therapy team in Barnet and have referred [them] for diagnostic assessment in relation to their development.
“[Rodrigues] continues to play a critical role in [the child’s] life. He looks after [the child] with regularity and takes [the child] to nursery and to the early years special educational needs centre, which [the child] attends one day a week.
“In his oral evidence, [Rodrigues] confirmed that he spent all of the previous week with [the child] and he was trying to spend as much time with [the child] as he could.”
Jadah Charles-Williams, the child’s mother, said the two-year-old was currently waiting to have an autism assessment.
Rodrigues’s mother, Ana Guita, added that the toddler “does not play like a normal child” and “constantly” needs supervision.
Sternberg said that while “there is significant public interest in deporting [Rodrigues] from the United Kingdom”, the 20-year-old would be able to remain.
In one instance, he sped through a 30mph zone at 70mph
PASternberg ruled that sending him back to Portugal would “deprive” the child of his care and result in him suffering from “emotional harm”.
He said: “From these referrals and the observation report, we conclude that [the child] is highly likely to need a high degree of parental supervision, care and support to ensure their well-being and to help with their development and education.”
The judge also ruled that Rodrigues’s deportation would breach his rights to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
It is the latest case where migrants have used human rights laws to postpone their removal or win the right to stay.
On Monday, it emerged that a Pakistani pedophile managed to avoid deportation despite preying on “barely pubescent girls” as it would “harm his children”.
That same day, it also came to light that a criminal from Albania has been allowed to remain in Britain due to his son's refusal to eat foreign chicken nuggets.
