A FURIOUS father today called for sackings in the Home Office after his daughter was held for a month and threatened with deportation after being caught shoplifting.

A FURIOUS father today called for sackings in the Home Office after his daughter was held for a month and threatened with deportation after being caught shoplifting.

Ipswich security guard Richard Brooks has claimed that hundreds of others throughout the UK could face being deported because they are “soft targets” for the government.

His claims follow the release of his daughter, Zyanya Brooks, of Robeck Road, Ipswich, and the release of Thai-born Sakchai Makao who has beaten a bid by the government to have him deported from Shetland.

Today Mr Brooks, a former sea captain from Vernon Street, Ipswich, said: “I'd have liked to see someone sacked over this.

“I think it's going to come out of the woodwork that there's a lot of people in this position.

“And a lot of them will be helpless because they won't have family or friends to fight for them and they will just be shipped out of town.”

Miss Brooks, a 23-year-old with a five-year-old daughter, was detained by the Home Office after serving half of a 28-day sentence for shoplifting from two stores in Ipswich town centre.

The offence was the latest in a string of crimes she has committed and the government said she should be returned to Samoa, which she left 16 years ago as a seven-year-old.

She was released last week after lawyers proved she had a legal right to remain in the UK as a British citizen by descent and just a few days before Mr Makao, a leisure centre worker, won his appeal to for the right to stay on Shetland.

His case had sparked widespread anger among islanders, who insisted he should not be deported despite him serving eight months in jail for setting fire to a car and a mobile cabin four years ago.

His detention, and that of Miss Brooks, came at a time when the government was facing severe criticism over its failure to find more than 1,000 foreign prisoners, including murderers and rapists, who had been released without deportation.

Gainsborough-born Mr Brooks said his daughter had been left “shell-shocked” by her ordeal and argued the government should be targeting more serious offenders for deportation.

But today the Home Office insisted that anyone who had served a custodial sentence would face consideration for deportation.

“If you come to this country you have to remain a law-abiding person, if you're not we'll seek to return you,” a spokesman said.

Weblink: www.homeoffice.gov.uk