Chinese asylum seeker turned DVD pirate at centre of immigation storm is finally...

12:17pm Saturday 15th November 2008

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A FAILED asylum seeker who found himself at the centre of an immigration storm after he was discovered selling pornographic DVDs in a North Yorkshire town has been kicked out of the UK.

Chinese fugitive Dun Lun Hu had been in the country illegally for five years when the law finally caught up with him as he sold sex films and dodgy copies of Hollywood blockbusters on the streets of Selby.

But it controversially emerged that the 36-year-old had been allowed to walk free following his court case because nobody from the UK Border Agency was prepared to collect him – with immigration officials instead sending him a letter asking him to voluntarily come to their offices.

The case prompted Selby MP John Grogan and York MP Hugh Bayley to demand answers from the Home Office about the Border Agency’s no-show after Hu received a three-month conditional discharge when he appeared before magistrates in York in August. Now the agency has confirmed Hu, who the court had heard had been “off the radar” of immigration officers for five years after his asylum application was turned down, was “removed from the country on November 12”, meaning he has now been sent back to his homeland of China.

“Anybody who is in the UK illegally is expected to leave and we will not hesitate to enforce their removal,” said Steve Lamb, the UK Border Agency’s operations director in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber.

“In 2007, 63,140 people were removed from the UK, which equated to one person every eight minutes. Delivery by the UK Border Agency has gone from strength to strength since its creation, with more drugs and weapons seized, more foreign criminals removed and more illegal immigrants stopped trying to cross the border than ever before.”

The agency did not confirm whether Hu had obeyed their letter’s instructions to hand himself in following his court case.

He was arrested on August 8 after police spotted him selling pornographic DVDs and pirated copies of films such as Sex And The City and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull for £2 each near The Elizabethan pub in Finkle Street.

Hu, who admitted four charges of selling pirated DVDs and two of selling pornographic DVDs, was forbidden to work in the UK because of his failed asylum seeker status and said he had turned to crime to pay for food.

Mr Grogan said: “I’m pleased the rule of law has been upheld and this man has been banished from these shores. I expressed concern at the time of his court case that this did not appear to be treated with the seriousness it deserved, but I’m pleased that has now been put right.”