A mother who arrived in the UK on a six-month visa but never left has reportedly delayed her deportation after claiming her Caribbean home would be too hot for her new Latvian husband, who would struggle to cope with its tropical cuisine.
Grenadian national Lynthia Calliste jetted into Britain with her son in March 2018 but stayed illegally in the UK after her visitor visa expired.
While in Britain, 35-year-old Calliste married Latvian forklift driver Konstantins Vinakovs, who has a permanent settled status.
Calliste then applied for a marital visa – prompting the Home Office to launch an investigation to try and deport her.
But she is now battling against being booted out of the UK by arguing separating her from her husband would breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human rights – the right to a family life.
When Home Office officials told Calliste her husband could join her in Grenada, the mother-of-one pushed back, saying it would cause too much hassle for her family.
She argued her husband would be ‘would be unable to tolerate the cuisine in Grenada’ and ‘worries… the heat’ of the tropical island would be too much for him, reports The Times.
Despite her claims having initially been thrown out during a first-tier immigration tribunal in November, Calliste has now appealed to the upper tier court.
Grenadian national Lynthia Calliste jetted into Britain with her son in March 2018 but stayed illegally in the UK after her visitor visa expired
While in Britain, 35-year-old Calliste married Latvian forklift driver Konstantins Vinakovs, who has a permanent settled status. The married couple are pictured together
Lynthia Calliste who has remained in the UK illegally since overstaying her six-month visitor visa reportedly claims her home island of Grenada (pictured) was too hot for her new Latvian husband
She is now allowed to remain in the UK until she has exhausted all stages of her latest appeal effort.
In the previous court hearing, the tribunal found that Vinakovs regularly ate his wife’s Caribbean food, with a judge claiming the Latvian had ‘no particularly difficulty’ with any one style of cuisine.
Judge Mark Blundell, who oversaw the hearing, also claimed there was ‘no evidence’ to show the heat in Grenada would be ‘particularly difficulty’ for Vinakovs to handle.
The forklift driver’s social media accounts, seen by MailOnline, appear to show him enjoying jet ski rides in the sun.
Judge Blundell said there was ‘no evidence’ Vinakovs would be ‘unable to live and work in the temperatures which are enjoyed by those who holiday on the island’.
‘I do not consider this to be a point of any great significance,’ Judge Blundell reportedly said.
It’s understood the Home Office is now preparing to deport Calliste and her son, who are thought to be living in the Rugeley area, in Staffordshire, north of Birmingham.
The news of the row has shone a fresh light on the latest tactics being used by illegal immigrants and criminals to avoid being deported.
Calliste reportedly claimed Mr Vinakovs would not be able to stay in Grenada due to the island’s hot climate and tropical cuisine
Images from Mr Vinakovs appear to show him relaxing and riding on a jet ski
On Monday it was revealed a paedophile Pakistani father jailed for child sex offences dodged deportation amid claims it would have been ‘unduly harsh’ on his two young children.
The unnamed father-of-two had been convicted of trying to get three ‘barely pubescent’ girls to engage in sex.
The foreign sex fiend – who was granted anonymity by an immigration court – was jailed for 18 months. He was also banned from living with his children and was placed on the sex offenders’ register.
However, in an extraordinary move, a lower tribunal judge during an appeal ruled the pervert should not be kicked out of Britain as it would be ‘unduly harsh for the children to be without their father’.
The Home Office has since appealed the ruling, sparking a legal tussle of war over whether or not the convicted sex offender should be allowed to stay in the UK.
The move has been backed by upper tribunal judge Judith Gleeson, who criticised the initial decision as ‘contrary to the evidence, plainly wrong and rationally insupportable’.
Last night, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the MailOnline: ‘This horrible case is exactly why we need to leave ECHR and take back control of our borders from paedophiles and rapists who exploit it.
‘This egregious case is definitely not what post war treaty writers were worried about.’
The man was initially granted leave to remain in the UK.
However, in March 2021, the pervert started targeting three ‘pre-pubescent’ girls, aged 12, 13 and 14 – who were in fact decoys being used by undercover cops.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman (pictured) lashed out over the move to let a Pakistani father, convicted of child sex offences, stay in the UK and avoid deportation
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed to combat the asylum seeker backlog to speed up deportations
The paedophile continued his sordid conversation for 18 months until he was arrested in August 2022.
It was claimed the man sought to abuse the three girls after being denied sex by his wife, who was being treated in hospital for Covid-19.
He was jailed in December of that year and ordered to serve 18 months behind bars.
While sentencing him, the judge told the man he had been ‘in denial’ about his offence and sexual interest in children and that there was ‘very little prospect’ of rehabilitation.
The judge also reportedly claimed jailing him would not have led to any significant impact on the man’s wife and children as he was not living with them ‘for obvious reasons’.
However, despite the damning criminal verdict, a lower immigration tribunal judge who heard the appeal claimed it would be unfair to separate the man from his children, whom he was being allowed to see daily under ‘supervised contact’.
The deportation case is ongoing.
The tribunal hearing heard the Pakistani man first came to the UK in 2018, joining his wife and their children, aged three and four.
A paedophile Pakistani father jailed for child sex offences dodged deportation as it would have been ‘unduly harsh’ on his two toddlers (image portrayed by a model)
In outlining their decision, the judge told the court they ‘placed weight’ on the wife’s claims she had been partly responsible for his offending because she had not been able to have sex with him while she was battling Covid-19 in hospital.
‘In light of the above matters considered cumulatively, I am satisfied that it would be unduly harsh for the children to be without their father,’ the judge reportedly ruled.
But upper tribunal judge Ms Gleeson has since overturned the initial decision in favour of the Home Office’s appeal against the judgement.
She branded the first-tier official’s findings as ‘plainly wrong’ and ‘rationally unsupportable’.
In her decision, the first judge had failed to take heed of the sentencing remarks by the criminal court judge, Ms Gleeson said.
The Home Office appealed against the initial ruling by the lower immigration tribunal judge (file image)
She added the emphasis on the wife’s ‘failure’ to have sex with her husband ‘does not explain’ why the man ‘felt the need to engage with barely pubescent girl children online’ and that the ‘absence of marital relations’ was ‘no excuse’ for his crimes.
‘His characterisation of these offences as a mere blip in the appellant’s life is unsound and inadequately reasoned,’ Ms Gleeson added.
There are 34,169 outstanding asylum appeals in the immigration tribunal courts – almost five times the number in 2022.
The Government last night insisted it has ramped up efforts to clear the backlog.
A Home Office spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Foreign nationals who commit heinous crimes should be in no doubt that we will do everything to make sure they are not free on Britain’s streets, including removal from the UK at the earliest possible opportunity.
‘Since the election, we’ve removed 2,580 foreign criminals, a 23 per cent increase on the same period 12 months prior.’
