A real setback for Boris Becker. The former tennis champion “was sentenced on Friday April 29 to two and a half years in prison for concealing assets and loans worth £2.5million [3 millions d’euros] to avoid paying his debts”reports the BBC.
British justice has decided on his guilt over his personal bankruptcy after an unpaid loan of “over £3 million [3,6 millions d’euros] on his luxury property in Mallorca, Spain” and felt that the youngest Wimbledon winner (17 in 1985) and six-time Grand Slam winner had no “shown no remorse or acknowledgment of his guilt”.
Judge Deborah Taylor also reminded him of her previous conviction for tax evasion in Germany in 2002: “You did not heed the warning you were given or the chance you were given of a suspended sentence. And this is a considerable aggravating circumstance.”
A reputation in tatters
In early April, the 54-year-old former German sportsman was found guilty by jurors “removal of property, counts of non-disclosure of property and concealment of debt”. But they had acquitted him of twenty other counts, including failure to hand over his tennis trophies and medals, “including two from Wimbledon”.
The champion’s lawyer argued in court that “the tennis star’s ‘disgrace’ had reduced ‘his reputation to shreds’”, explains the British public media. He had said:
“These procedures have completely destroyed his career and ruined any prospect of being able to collect an income.”
However, Boris Becker has pocketed some 50 million dollars (47.4 million euros) in earnings during his career. But since he ended it and “due to an expensive divorce”“his income had decreased considerably”. Since his retirement in 1999, he commented for the BBC the Wimbledon tournament and, in 2013, became a coach for another champion, Novak Djokovic. “During their three years together, Djokovic won six Grand Slam titles.”