Foreign crooks get £2,000 to quit UK

FOREIGN criminals are being offered up to £2,000 to leave on deportation flights, it is claimed.

- By Michael Knowles

Cashing out...migrant receives his cash card on deportation flight

Almost 50 crooks were flown to Romania on Tuesday, with one shouting, "I did my mistake, I paid for it" as a TV crew was allowed to film it.

But murderers, sex offenders and thieves were all amongst the cohort given prepaid bank cards worth up to £2,000.

Officials defended the scheme, insisting it is cheaper for the Government to effectively pay foreign criminals to leave than order "enforced deportations" or keep them in jail.

It costs around £54,000 a year to house foreign offenders in English and Welsh prisons.