He was eventually caught by plain-clothes officers patrolling Surbiton, in the south-west of London, after an increase in local burglaries. He was wearing an expensive watch that he had stolen. Puka was jailed for 3½ years and then deported in March 2020.
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During his time in a UK prison, Puka earned notoriety for using an illegal mobile phone smuggled into the jail to post Instagram pictures of himself. He posed alongside the leader of an organised crime group who was serving a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to supply cocaine and money laundering.
After returning to Albania for several months, he travelled through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands before beating border checks to enter Britain again in December 2020, according to his Instagram account.
It is understood that he has lodged an asylum application, and has been on immigration bail and subject to an electronic tag since last year while awaiting a tribunal to decide on his claim.
As well as the clip of the Ferrari, he has posted photos and videos of his time on holiday at the Carbis Bay Hotel near St Ives, Cornwall, walking on the beach with the tag on his leg.
His social media account includes images with other luxury cars, including a Porsche Cayenne, a Mercedes G-Wagon, a Bentley Bentayga, a BMW X5, a Mercedes AMG and a Jaguar XF. His sources of funding remain unknown, but Albanian reports suggest he has been staying in a £250,000 flat in Hounslow, west London.
It follows revelations in The Telegraph about another Albanian criminal who entered Britain again after being deported and won the right to stay under the European Convention on Human Rights.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. Puka has been deported by the UK before. It is UK law that we cannot deport individuals where there are claims or representations still awaiting decision.
“We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK, with 3000 returned since the new government came into power.”