Violent thug found back in UK just 17 days after being deported to Romania

Chef Dragos Henter was jailed for 32 months last year after threatening to slice a woman's face to make her look like The Joker from the Batman films

A man who was deported to Romania after subjecting his partner to years of violence and abuse was found back in the UK just 17 days after being ordered to leave.

Chef Dragos Henter was jailed for 32 months last year after threatening to slice a woman's face to make her look like The Joker from the Batman films. He also carried out a four-year campaign of violence against a partner and was later caught in jail with illegal SIM cards.

Police said Henter was a danger to the public and he was deported back to his home country of Romania on August 21, once his prison sentences were complete. But just 17 days later, on September 7, Henter managed to sneak back into the UK and was found drunk driving around Dundee, Scotland.

When he was pulled over by cops, he gave them a fake name - but further checks found he'd arrived in Scotland illegally.

Henter, 32, attended Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday to admit the immigration offence and was jailed for four months for the driving offence. He admitted to knowingly entering the UK in breach of a deportation order. A source close to the case said Henter told officials he had forked out £10,000 to be smuggled back in to his wife and children.

When interrogated by police, Henter told them that he planned to keep coming back to Scotland each time he got deported to Romania. The court heard of his several former convictions, including domestic assaults, bullying and coercive control, as well as prison breaches, and possession of offensive weapons.

He was jailed for 32 months after attacking his partner in a restaurant, having another 163 days added to his sentence for being found with three illicit SIM cards in Perth prison. Hener had pinned his partner down on a restaurant floor at knifepoint amid a four-year-long campaign of violence and abuse.

He also pulled a kitchen knife with a 10-inch blade on the woman. The chef de partie grabbed the handbrake and steering wheel of her car repeatedly as she drove. At one point, she was too afraid to walk up Kinnoull Hill in Perth with him, and stayed away from the edge in case he pushed her over it.

In February 2020, Henter told her he would slash her if she spoke to other men. Prosecutor Gavin Burton told the court: "He said that if he ever saw her speaking to another male he would get a screwdriver from his car and slash her across the face to make her look like The Joker. This made her extremely distressed."

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said: "You are assessed as posing a danger. The charges represent a course of conduct of domestic abuse by you."