Ndue Paluca, an Albanian who entered the UK without permission in 2012, has won the right to pursue a formal appeal against his deportation.[1] Upper Tribunal Judge Sarah Grey set aside the finding that his cannabis offending caused serious harm and ordered the case to be heard by a new judge.[1] She ruled that the first-tier judge erred because police had seized the cannabis before it circulated within society.[1] Judge Grey also found the lower judge had failed to properly consider the harm deportation would cause his two young children under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects family life.[1] She sent the appeal back to the first-tier tribunal for reconsideration and left Paluca in the UK.[1] Paluca challenged his deportation order in October 2023, and a first-tier immigration tribunal rejected the challenge and dismissed a later appeal in March 2025.[1] The case turned on whether his offence was serious enough for deportation, given that he was jailed for less than a year, the standard minimum for automatic deportation.[1]
Police raided cannabis farms including two in Ashford, Kent, and one in Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire, seizing more than 485 plants, half a kilo of harvested cannabis and more than £61,000 in cash.[1] Paluca, 30, was jailed for 10 months in 2021, while his 10 fellow Albanian gang members received sentences totalling more than 36 years.[1] Judge Grey noted that his role had been working as a gardener at just one of the raided properties.[1]
His lawyers argued at the Upper Tribunal that the first-tier judge had overlooked the fact that police seized all the cannabis grown by the gang before it could be sold and cause harm.[1] Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called it absurd that being caught red-handed now counts in a criminal’s favour.[1]