Author-THE IRISH NEWS
A MAN who threw a police phone at an immigration officer after being stopped trying to enter the UK illegally has avoided prison.
Albdirahman Ali was given a three-month suspended sentence today for his outburst of aggression in Belfast.
The 20-year-old, of no fixed abode, admitted charges of entering the UK in breach of a deportation order, assault and criminal damage to a phone belonging to the PSNI.
He was detained by an immigration officer in the city on Monday.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard he became aggressive, pulled out the police phone and threw it in the official’s direction.
A defence lawyer said Ali was born in Sweden after his Somalian parents moved to Europe.
The accused was then brought up in England and hoped to go to university before a previous sentence led to him being deported back to Sweden.
“He had no family there and couldn’t speak the language,” the solicitor said.
“He was living on the streets and tried to make his way back, through Dublin, before he was stopped in Belfast.
“It was out of a sense of frustration, things had all gone haywire for him, and he did pull out the phone and throw it. Luckily it didn’t hit the officer.”
Imposing three months imprisonment, suspended for a year, District Judge Fiona Bagnall said it would allow Ali’s transfer back to England for separate, deportation-related proceedings.
