A drug dealer from Albania initially secured permission to remain in Britain after an immigration judge determined his marriage would suffer without physical intimacy if he faced deportation.
The First-tier Tribunal ruled that Roland Matranxhi's relationship with his Portuguese wife would "dwindle away" and "go cold" if they were separated, meeting the threshold for "compelling circumstances" that override deportation orders.
The decision has since been overturned by the Upper Tribunal, which found the original ruling flawed.
Matranxhi, who received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for operating a cannabis cultivation network, now faces removal from the country.
Roland Matranxhi received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for operating a cannabis cultivation network
|GMP
Matranxhi arrived in Britain illegally in June 2018 and subsequently obtained pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme as the partner of a European national.
His criminal enterprise unravelled in June 2023 when Manchester City Crown Court convicted him of conspiracy to produce cannabis, possession with intent to supply, and handling criminal proceeds.
Greater Manchester Police discovered Matranxhi and his accomplices establishing a cultivation facility in Bolton.
Officers recovered cannabis valued between £100,000 and £200,000, plus £11,000 concealed in a shoebox and notebooks detailing cultivation supplies.
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Officers recovered cannabis valued between £100,000 and £200,000
|GMP
The operation involved his brother Klodian Matranxhi and Dashamir Rexhmati, who received sentences alongside him.
The Home Office attempted deportation proceedings in July 2023, but Matranxhi challenged the decision.
His wife, identified as Miss Mareno, testified she would not accompany him to Albania, citing her close bond with her sister in Britain, whom she described as being "like a twin".
The First-tier Tribunal judge accepted that Miss Mareno spoke no Albanian and had established professional employment in the UK.
Officers also recovered £11,000 concealed in a shoebox and notebooks detailing cultivation supplies
|GMP
The judge concluded that forcing her relocation would be "unduly harsh" and that maintaining their relationship through visits and communication alone would prove insufficient.
"The risk of the relationship failing is high," the judge said, determining these factors constituted "very compelling circumstances" that outweighed deportation requirements.
The Upper Tribunal dismantled the original decision, with Judge Clive Lane stating that adult siblings choosing to cohabit "does not lift their circumstances on to a level which can reasonably be described as 'very compelling'."
Judge Lane criticised the First-tier Tribunal for accepting Miss Mareno's testimony "too readily" and ruled her reluctance to leave her sister "does not constitute a very compelling circumstance which trumps the public interest in the appellant's deportation."
"In short, the facts simply did not justify the outcome reached by the First-tier Tribunal judge," Judge Lane concluded, ordering Matranxhi's removal from Britain.
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