BORIS BECKER JAILED: TENNIS CHAMPION SENTENCED OVER BANKRUPTCY

Boris Becker, the former Wimbledon champion, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for concealing £2.5 million in assets and loans in order to avoid paying debts. Under the Insolvency Act, the 54-year-old six-time Grand Slam winner was found guilty of four offenses. Becker declared bankruptcy in June 2017 as a result of an unpaid debt of more than £3 million on his luxury Mallorca villa. He had shown neither sorrow nor acknowledgment of guilt, according to Judge Deborah Taylor. "You did not heed the warning you were given and the chance you were given by the suspended sentence, and that is a substantial aggravating circumstance," she said, referring to Becker's earlier conviction for tax evasion in Germany in 2002. "You've attempted to separate yourself from your wrongdoing and bankruptcy." "While I accept your humiliation as a necessary part of the process, you have shown no humility." Jurors convicted Becker guilty of removal of the property, two charges of failing to report estate, and hiding debt earlier this month after hearing evidence for approximately two weeks. They acquitted him on nine counts of neglecting to hand over his tennis trophies and medals, including two from Wimbledon. The jury determined the Wimbledon broadcaster had acted "deliberately and dishonestly," according to prosecutor Rebecca Chalkley. "Even today, Mr. Becker is still blaming others although it was clearly his obligation," she continued. Becker had neglected to register his part in a huge £1 million mansion in his German hometown of Leimen, as well as a bank loan of over £700,000 on the property, as well as shares in a technological business worth £66,000, according to the verdict. He was also discovered to have transferred payments totaling £390,000 from his company account to nine other people, including his ex-wife Barbara and estranged wife Sharlely "Lilly" Becker. Becker's attorney Jonathan Laidlaw QC told the court that the tennis star's "fall from grace" had ruined his reputation. "Boris Becker has literally nothing and also nothing to show for what was the most sparkling of sports careers, and that is appropriately dubbed nothing short of zero," he remarked.