Samoan woman fights to stay in UK after being caught shoplifting

A Samoan woman living in England says she is making a claim under Britain's human rights legislation against being deported after she was caught shoplifting.

Zyanya Brooks, 23, is handling her own case. She is expected to argue that there are compassionate circumstances which should allow her to remain in the United Kingdom, the Ipswich Evening Star newspaper reported.

Her father Richard and 19-year-old brother live in Ipswich and she has no contact with her mother in Western Samoa.

Ms Brooks' daughter Tamiya, 5, and her step-daughter Mercedes, 13, are both cared for by their father but she has regular access to them. She planned to argue that if she was deported to Samoa her rights to a family life would be breached, the report said.

Ms Brooks has been held in a detention centre for more than four weeks after serving half of a 28-day prison sentence for shoplifting £160 ($NZ500) worth of clothing at Monsoon and Gap stores.

She left Samoa 16 years ago. "England is my home. I don't know anything about it out there, I've lost the language and everything," she told the newspaper.

Her father, Richard Brooks, who has six children including two from a previous marriage, said: "Every single member of her family is a British national except for her.

"This is the only home she's had."

He said his daughter was being used as a scapegoat by the Home Office, which was revealed to have failed to deport more than 1000 convicted criminals.

"This is purely a knee-jerk reaction," said Mr Brooks, a former policeman.

"Because of the publicity they've had regarding serious offenders and illegal immigrants getting out for rape, armed robbery and murder and not being deported they're trying to make the numbers up.

"She's not exactly a violent young girl, she's just a tearaway."

The Home Office refused to comment on Ms Brooks' case.

- NZPA