Leading Bonfire Night rioter banned from the country caught back living in Leeds

Timotei Avadanei was jailed and then deported back to his home country of Romania for his part in the large-scale standoff in which gangs of yobs goaded police for more than four hours, hurling bricks and fireworks at officers and torching wheelie bins and makeshift road barriers.

But 23-year-old Avdanei was pulled over by West Yorkshire Police on the evening of June 26 this year and arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after an axe in the back of his van.

No further action was taken for that matter, but he gave a false name to police, prosecutor Fen Greatley-Hirsch told Leeds Crown Court. When police checked his finger print on the database, he identity was quickly ascertained.

The court heard that Avadanei, whose address was given as Strathmore Avenue, Harehills, had been given a 28-month jail sentence in February 2021 for his part in the riots. Seven months later, a deportation order was signed off that gave him the option to be sent back to Romania rather than complete his sentence in HMP Moorland in Doncaster, to which he agreed.

However, it banned him from ever returning to the UK. It was not known how he got back into the country, but he claimed he had arrived back on UK soil just two months ago. He then tried to claim the deportation order was “not fully explained” to him.

Accepting a breach of its terms, he appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand and cried throughout his sentencing hearing.

Mitigating, Mohammed Rafiq, said that Avadanei had a large family in Leeds but said the “penny had finally dropped” about the seriousness of the breach.

He said: “His intention is to go back to Romania and will not come back again, having tasted custody he realises that you can’t breach orders and come back willy-nilly. He worked in a food factory for a reasonable period of time so he was not offending all the time.

"He very much regrets it and has brought suffering not just upon him but on his family as well.”

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC jailed him for another 18 months, and told him he will be deported once he is released, usually at the half-way stage of his sentence.

He told him: “You were sent home rather than serve the remainder of your prison sentence in this country. You saw some advantage to agreeing to it but you knew you could not come back.

"When circumstances changed in Romania, you came back here. Nobody has said how you managed to do that or what paperwork you used but you obviously know you should not have been here.

"What on earth did you expect to happen?”

Several yobs were jailed for their part in the riots of 2019, including two who were finally sentenced in June of this year. Six police officers were injured in the disorder, with the clean-up bill and cost of the lengthy investigation running to more than £200,000.