A Romanian gangster running a children's fight club in London has avoided a second bid to extradite him, despite being convicted of the attempted murders of two men in his native country.
Adrian Preda, 44, is wanted in Romania to serve jail sentences for multiple violent offences and belonging to a notorious crime gang.
But, he has been allowed to remain in the country after a British judge said extradition would breach his right to a private and family life because his wife and children may also be forced to also return home.
It means Preda, who once fought controversial influencer Tristan Tate, brother of Andrew, in a brutal cage bout, is able to continue teaching mixed martial arts to children and adults at the "Preda Fight Club" gym he runs in north west London.
Footage posted on social media show the 44-year-old, who was a member of the Sportivii crime gang in Bucharest, putting children through their paces at the gym in an industrial unit in Kingsbury.
Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp MP, said: "It is a disgrace that because of the ECHR, we cannot deport a dangerous foreign national offender wanted for a series of violent offences and belonging to a criminal gang in Romania. This man should not be in our country.
"The next Conservative Government will leave the ECHR and ECAT and establish our removals force to increase the number of deportations to 150,000 a year through our BORDERS plan.
"We will deport every single foreign national offender and illegal immigrant, but Keir Starmer does not have the backbone to do this."
Romanian news reports say the wider gang Preda was involved with has had its hand in trafficking £2million worth of heroin, stealing machine guns and pistols from a Romanian army base, and opening fire on rivals in the streets.
Adrian Preda, who runs a children's fight club in London, has avoided a second bid to extradite him, despite being convicted of the attempted murders of two men in his native country
Preda had received a nine-year sentence after being convicted of a number of offences, including the attempted murders.
He was also convicted of attacking and injuring two police officers with objects during a brawl at a Bucharest nightclub.
Preda was released on bail to appeal the convictions, but instead fled to London. In 2017 the Romanian Court of Appeal did not overturn the convictions but reduced his sentence to five years and six months, which has yet to be served.
Romania issued a European Arrest Warrant, leading to his detention, but in April 2018, District Judge Robin McPhee, sitting at Westminster Magistrates' Court, discharged his extradition saying he was "free to go" because "overcrowded jails" in his homeland might breach his human rights due to potentially "degrading’ treatment".
This allowed Preda to remain in the country and set up a number of business interests, such as the gym.
Romania issued a new arrest warrant in 2024 and he was arrested by the National Crime Agency extradition unit last year before fresh extradition proceedings began at the same court.
Preda claims he was prosecuted because of corruption and insists he lives a crime-free life in the UK.
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Preda had received a nine-year sentence after being convicted of a number of offences, including the attempted murders
Videos on TikTok show handfuls of young children being taught to fight by the convict
|TIKTOK
District Judge Kevin Grego, who heard the case, said Romania has now given an assurance over any prison conditions Preda would be held in, meaning this could no longer prevent his extradition.
Preda argued extradition would place a burden on his wife and their three children aged 12, nine and eight.
Judge Grego wrote about Preda's wife in his judgment: "She feels there is no option other than her returning to Romania with the children if he is extradited.
"She said she will not be able to maintain their home here and the children would not be able to travel back and forth to visit their father, who up to now has been ever-present and hands-on as a parent."
Tim Loughton, former Tory MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, raised concerns about the previous refusal to extradite Preda when he was on the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2018.
He said: "It is cases like this that lead people to ask what planet some of our judges are on.
"This is a serious criminal legitimately convicted of dangerous crimes in a European democracy and ally.
"There is no way he should continue to be free to roam the streets in the UK in defiance of due legal process from Romanian law enforcement agencies.
"Inconvenience and upheaval to family members should in no way be seen as a stay out of jail card and we should hand him over to the Romanian authorities as a matter of urgency.
"If his family chooses to go with him is a matter for them and not for a British judge to regard as a veto on justice."