Prisons minister defends £500 payoff to migrant sex offender with golf analogy

Paying a migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison £500 to be deported without a fuss was “sensible”, a prisons minister has said and used a golfing analogy to defend the move.

Lord Timpson told Parliament that “if someone wants to give you a putt, you take it” as he was tackled over the controversial cash handout to Hadush Kebatu.

The Labour frontbencher repeated that the payment was an “operational decision” to get the Ethiopian national on the plane without delay and pointed out it was far cheaper than the cost of keeping him in prison for a year which would have been £54,000.

But political opponents argue the payoff raised questions over the operation of an unofficial “slush fund” that “has the smell of being an arbitrary, uncontrolled, unprofessional and unacceptable system”.

Kebatu was forcibly removed to his home country on Tuesday night with a team of five escorts on the flight, and arrived on Wednesday morning with no right to return to Britain, according to the Home Office.

Downing Street said he had attempted to apply for a “facilitated return scheme,” which under successive governments has offered foreign nationals resettlement grants of up to £1,500, but the bid was denied.

However, after threatening to disrupt the deportation flight he was given £500.

Speaking at Westminster, Lord Timpson said: “The £500 that was paid was an operational decision to get Kebatu on a plane without any delays.

“It’s far cheaper than booking more flights, and it’s far cheaper than him being in a cell for another year, which is £54,000.

“I also think it was a sensible decision by civil servants, and it was in a golfing analogy ‘If someone wants to give you a putt, you take it’.

“He needed to get on the plane and get back to Ethiopia.”

Conservative shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar said: “The briefing has been put out that this has nothing to do with ministers. Apparently, officials use their own cash cards we’re told to take the money out. This is remarkable.”

He added: “Under Prime Minister Starmer we’ve got the farce that offenders liable for deportation are forcing public officials to come with them to the cashpoint, to take out cash to give them in an attempt to prevent their causing more problems prior to their deportation.

“This is a reversal of justice. It’s hard to find the words adequate to reflect this breakdown in basic operational competence.”

Lord Wolfson went on: “There is a serious point here. I don’t know whether the Attorney General… has sanctioned this payment of public funds to Mr Kebatu in the hope that it would encourage him not to mount a legal challenge?

“If he hasn’t, I would be interested to know whether the Attorney General supports the use of public funds to encourage people not to make legal points in court.

“That seems to me to be a matter not only of a misuse of public finance, but also a real problem for the rule of law.”

Liberal Democrat peer and barrister Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames said: “How did that payment to Mr Kebatu come to be made since it wasn’t under the facilitated returns?

“Is there some kind of what can only be described as a slush fund which can be used to buy people’s compliance with their deportation, and if so on whose authority is it extended?

“One can understand that might cost a great deal more than £500 if a flight has to be cancelled and a potential deportee cannot therefore be deported.

“But surely Downing Street can see that paying one deportee off for not making trouble is going to lead to a whole number of others taking the same course.

“And who makes the decisions in any particular case? What controls are there over such payments? How is this not rewarding trouble-making?

“Who decides in any given case the amount that is to be paid out, if not £1,500, is it discretionary, can it be more, must it be less?

“These are serious questions about what I’m afraid has the smell of being an arbitrary, uncontrolled, unprofessional and unacceptable system.”

Kebatu had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, sparking a wave of protests outside the accommodation used to house asylum seekers.

The incident has prompted an independent inquiry to find out what went wrong and a prison officer has been suspended while the probe is carried out.

Prisons have also been told to start a series of enhanced checks before inmates are released after the mistake.