Looter faces deportation for stealing lick of icecream

Arson attacks destroyed many buildings during the riots in London and other British cities in August last year. Photo / AP

A year after the riots, the consequences are still being dealt with.

A looter jailed for 16 months after taking a single lick of an unwanted icecream cone stolen from a ransacked shop during last year's riots now faces deportation and a 10-year ban from Britain.

Anderson Fernandes, whose case highlighted concerns over harsh sentencing for those convicted of involvement in the riots, has been told he will be sent back to Portugal where he has no family and spent only a few years as a child.

Fernandes wandered into a ransacked confectioner's in central Manchester in August last year and helped himself to a cone and two scoops of icecream. He took a lick, did not like the coffee flavour, and handed it to a woman outside, he said.

He admitted burglary in the days following the riot after police told him they found his DNA on a cigarette inside the branch of Patisserie Valerie.

The prosecution said that at one point he had considered distributing cones to people milling outside the shop during the disturbances.

The 22-year-old, who had never before been in prison, was jailed for 16 months after district judge Jonathan Taaffe said he had a "public duty to deal swiftly and harshly with matters of this nature".

Fernandes, of Newton Heath, Manchester, said the deportation order meant that he was being punished twice.

"I had never been to prison before. I thought I would get community service or a tag. It's not like I smashed a shop or broke anything."

After serving eight months of his sentence, Fernandes was transferred to the Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. He has not seen his family since then because of the difficulties they would have travelling from Manchester to visit him.

Fernandes, who moved to Britain with his family at the age of 13, has been told he will be sent back to Portugal, where he lived for a couple of years after leaving Angola where he was born.

He is appealing.

His solicitor, Jackie Mason, said Fernandes was considered for deportation because he was sentenced to more than a year in prison - a punishment she said was disproportionate to the crime.

"He wasn't really involved in terms of organising and rallying," Mason said.

Under the terms of his deportation, he would not be able to return to Britain for 10 years.

A UK Border Agency representative said: "All foreign nationals receiving a custodial sentence of at least 12 months should be considered for deportation. Each case is looked at on its individual merits."

Previous offences, the severity of the crime and the question of whether they have family in Britain are all taken into consideration before a decision is made to deport.

Senior judges and Prime Minister David Cameron have all endorsed the handing down of long sentences for those involved in rioting despite criticisms by lawyers and rights groups.

STORIES FROM THE RIOTS

The publican: Niche Mpala Mufwankolo
A year on from the riots that saw his pub ransacked, his stock stolen and his livelihood in jeopardy, landlord Niche Mpala Mufwankolo is still waiting for answers. As he tried to chase looters out of the pub, others streamed through the broken windows, including one with a knife. Mufwankolo, 58, fled to the roof. He eventually shinned down a drainpipe to safety, leaving the pub, the Pride of Tottenham, to the looters. He claimed back his losses under the 1886 Riot (Damages) Act but after administrators lost his papers, he was offered only 10 per cent of his claim. That eventually increased to 30 per cent, which he was reluctantly forced to accept. "Maybe there are people out there doing nothing, robbing the Government, who have a better life than the ones who co-operate. They say: people be quiet, be calm - in a couple of weeks we are going to sort this situation out. We're like children in front of their parents. Now we are abandoned."

The bystander: Fahim Alam
Alam spent six weeks remand in prison and six months under a night-time curfew before he finally went on trial. A jury cleared him of violent disorder in 30 minutes. Alam, an Oxford graduate, says his case highlighted a two-tier system of justice after the violence. While others he came across were represented in overnight courts by overstretched defence teams, he fought the charges. Alam, 26, was arrested during disturbances in Hackney that he came across while walking home from work. He says he was arrested by six or seven officers as he stood watching the scenes unfold. He spent 1 1/2 days in a police cell before being taken to court then six weeks on remand in prison.

"The whole experience has changed me as a person. It's given me experiences I can never forget. It's taken away parts of my life that I can never regain."

The businessman: Omer Mehmet
Three months after the rioting that closed down the family motor repair business, Omer Mehmet's heart began racing, he collapsed and was taken to hospital by his son. The family feared a heart attack brought on by the stress because they had earned nothing since last August. "Everything fell apart," says Mehmet, 48. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the financial burden of paying bills for a business that could not open. For the next four months he could not leave his house. "I had two thoughts, I was either going to kill myself to get rid of this pain, or go to a mental home." The Mehmets had ploughed everything they had into the Remo Auto Centre, a motor repair business that was growing strongly until the riots, when a building next door was set ablaze. It finally reopened in April but business failed to pick up and they have been forced to cut their losses and sell. His wife says: "What angers us is that it isn't our own fault."

- Independent