The Home Office offered a Romanian grooming gang ringleader £1,500 to be deported while he was behind bars on remand and awaiting trial for 10 rapes.
Mircea Marian Cumpanasoiu led a network in Dundee which raped, drugged and exploited vulnerable women, according to Sky News.
However, in the summer of 2024, while on remand at HMP Perth for serial sex offences, the 38-year-old was offered a “voluntary return” form by officials as part of a Government scheme which paid foreign nationals to leave the country.
The Home Office decided not to remove him due to the impending court proceedings.
Only a few months later, as he appeared in a High Court dock facing 10 rape charges, Cumpanasoiu’s immigration status, which was set to expire, was automatically renewed under the EU settlement scheme.
The man was handed a 24-year extended sentence for sexual and trafficking offences, including 20 years in jail and four on licence.
He was described by prosecutors as a “winking, smirking pimp” who on one occasion, filmed a victim climbing a tree to escape him when she “failed” to make enough money in Dundee brothels.
It has been revealed by Sky News that his settled status has been revoked.
Mircea Marian Cumpanasoiu winking to the camera
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CROWN OFFICE
Home Office workers met with Cumpanasoiu at Perth prison while he was on remand in August last year, sources have told Sky News.
They further added that he “expressed a desire to return home” and was given documents to sign where he would agree to a cash-assisted return.
The plan was later blocked.
Halfway through the grooming gang trial, Cumpanasoiu’s EU settled status was renewed.
Marian Cumpanasoiu, 37, Remus Stan, 34, Catalan Dobre, 44, Cristian Urlateanu, 41, and Alexandra Bugonea, 34, were convicted of a number of offences at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday, January 9
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POLICE SCOTLAND
The Home Office did not dispute the version of events to the broadcaster.
Responding to the case, Rape Crisis Scotland said it raises serious concerns for the victims.
A charity spokesman said: “This was a horrific case, which involved numerous vulnerable survivors who showed tremendous strength and courage by coming forward to seek justice for what had happened to them”.
“The severity of this case, quite rightly, resulted in significant prison sentences for the perpetrators,” the spokesman added.
“However, it is not clear why the Home Office tried to intervene before a trial had begun, and any verdict had been reached.”
The spokesman added that survivors “must have faith in the criminal justice process and its ability to hold perpetrators accountable to their crimes”.
“This incident raises questions about what the Home Office’s intentions were, and why it was able to insert itself into active criminal proceedings in the first place,” he added.
The EU Settlement Scheme was established after Brexit in order to allow EU citizens and their family members the ability to continue to live and work in the UK.
People who have “settled status” can stay in the UK indefinitely but it is understood Cumpanasoiu was someone with “pre-settled status” and those people must reapply after five years.
The Home Office introduced automatic extensions of pre-settled status since September 2023, meaning renewals occur electronically unless intervened by officials.
Human Rights lawyer Jen Ang said the vast majority of people processed under the EU system were law-abiding citizens.
The Glasgow University professor said authorities did have the power to intervene in the case and “stop the automatic renewal”.
She added the “optics of this … are not great”.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This man will serve his sentence for the abhorrent crimes he committed and will be considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.
“A deportation order will automatically trigger the revocation of an individual’s right to be in the UK, including pre-settled status,” the spokesman added.