Drug dealer banned from Islington wins appeal against deportation
Keno Forbes - Credit: Archant
A Jamaican crack cocaine and heroin dealer who was banned from Islington for 10 years has fought off a bid to deport him.
Keno Forbes, 35, known under his street name Blood, was jailed for three years in 2011 after pleading guilty to 11 charges of supplying class A drugs, mainly on the Bemerton Estate, off Caledonian Road, Islington.
He was also handed a 10-year antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) which prevented him entering the borough.
The Home Office tried to have Forbes sent back to his home country, but a his lawyers lodged an appeal under the European Convention of Human Rights – which sets out the right to “private and family life” – and said deporting him would harm his relationship with his wife and children.
The immigration and asylum tribunal ruled in his favour, and a home office appeal was turned down in October last year.
Now the drug dealer can stay in the country indefinitely.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the tribunal’s decision and are now considering our options in this case. We firmly believe foreign nationals who break the law should be deported.
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“We are starting the deportation process earlier and removing foreign criminals quicker than ever.”
Forbes, then of York Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, commuted to Islington on a daily basis to sell drugs and was arrested after a specialist unit identified him as a major supplier.
Police searched an address he used in Rufford Street, Islington, and discovered drug paraphernalia such as scales, a chopping board which had white powder, a razor blade, cling film and black plastic.
The home office spokesman added: “Since 2010, the Home Office has removed or deported more than 17,000 foreign national offenders, including 4,765 in 2012.
“Through our Immigration Bill we will reduce the 17 rights of appeal to four and those with no right to be here will not be able to prevent deportation simply by dragging out the appeals process. The Bill will also give the full force of primary legislation to our policy that foreign criminals should ordinarily be deported despite their claim to a family life.”
