The ringleader of a Romanian grooming gang was offered £1,500 by the Home Office to be deported while he was in prison awaiting trial for 10 rapes, a Sky News investigation has found.
Mircea Marian Cumpanasoiu, 38, led a network which raped, drugged and exploited vulnerable local women in Dundee.
But Sky News can exclusively reveal that in summer 2024, while in custody at HMP Perth awaiting trial for serial sex offences, officials handed him a “voluntary return” form under a government scheme paying foreign nationals to leave Britain.
The department later decided not to remove him because of the upcoming court proceedings.
Immigration status renewed during trial
In another twist, just months later – as he stood in a High Court dock facing 10 rape charges – Sky News has discovered Cumpanasoiu’s immigration status, which was due to expire, was automatically renewed under the EU settlement scheme.
Cumpanasoiu was later handed a 24-year extended sentence, with 20 years in jail and four on licence, for sexual and trafficking offences.
Prosecutors described him as a “winking, smirking pimp” who once filmed a victim climbing a tree to escape his anger when she “failed” to make enough money in Dundee brothels.
Following days of questions from Sky News, officials have confirmed his settled status has now been revoked.
The inside story
Sky sources say Home Office workers personally met Cumpanasoiu at Perth prison while he was on remand in August 2024.
Sources say he “expressed a desire to return home” and was handed documents to sign agreeing to a cash-assisted return, but the plan was later blocked.
But in another twist, on 2 December 2024, halfway through the grooming gang trial, his EU settled status was renewed.
A source close to proceedings told Sky News the revelations “smack of incompetence”.
The Home Office does not dispute this version of events.
Rape Crisis Scotland said the case raises concerns.
A spokesperson for the charity 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 has, quite rightly, resulted in significant prison sentences for the perpetrators. However, it is not clear why the Home Office tried to intervene before a trial had begun, and any verdict had been reached.
“Survivors must have faith in the criminal justice process and its ability to hold perpetrators accountable for 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.”
Read more from Sky News:
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What is the EU Settlement Scheme?
The EU Settlement Scheme was set up after Brexit to allow citizens from the EU, and their family members, to continue living and working in the UK.
People with “settled status” can stay in the UK indefinitely.
Those with “pre-settled status”, such as Cumpanasoiu, must reapply after five years.
Since September 2023, the Home Office has introduced automatic extensions of pre-settled status which means renewals happen electronically unless officials intervene.
There are questions now about whether this automation can lead to offenders such as Cumpanasoiu being overlooked.
Home Office ‘had power to intervene’
Jen Ang, a human rights lawyer and leading expert on migrants’ rights, told Sky News the vast majority of those processed under the EU system are law-abiding citizens.
But Ms Ang, a professor at the University of Glasgow, reveals authorities did have the power to intervene in this case.
She said: “In this case the Home Office did have the power and the right to stop the automatic renewal. At any point where it is possible that someone is about to become unsuitable for settled status, the Home Office could have intervened.
“The optics of this in the context of such a high-profile and horrific crime are not great.”
‘The public are entitled to be concerned’
Thomas Leonard Ross KC, a leading Scottish defence lawyer, described the decision-making as “flawed”.
He said: “I mean automatically renewing pre-settled status in 99.9% of occasions can be done without any risk to the public. But clearly this particular individual has been assessed to be an extremely dangerous person.
“The public are perfectly entitled to be concerned. A decision of this type made automatically without any assessment as to the risk that he might pose is clearly a flawed decision.”
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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.”
