RAF veteran can stay in Britain

The British Government has backed down on its threat to deport an 84-year-old New Zealander who settled in England after fighting in the Royal Air Force.

The Government has given an assurance that Noel Bevan - formerly of Wanganui - will be allowed to stay in Britain, where he settled 60 years ago with an English wife, Marjorie, and raised three daughters, the Sunderland Echo reported.

Mr Bevan, who has always had a New Zealand passport, was given an indefinite-leave-to-remain stamp when he first settled in Britain. But he lost that passport and obtained a new one, which did not have the required stamp.

When he returned from a recent holiday to Spain to visit one of his daughters, immigration officials told him he shouldn't be living in the UK. They said his papers weren't in order and gave him just two months to prove he was entitled to stay in the country.

Now, the veteran has been told he must still apply for permanent UK residency, but the Home Office has agreed to send him paperwork so he can have a stamp put on his passport that means he can come and go as he pleases.

An ecstatic Mr Bevan, who lives near Sunderland in northern England, told the newspaper: "I feel much happier now, but really I should be taking it easy now at my age, not dealing with this. This has been really stressful."

A Home Office spokesman said the correct procedures had been followed.

"Mr Bevan's passport needed updating and we have given him time to do that."

- NZPA