Home secretary, Priti Patel has lost a deportation fight with a Nigerian man caught supplying class A drugs.
The man who was handed a four-and-a-half year jail term challenged it saying it would interfere in the rights of his partner and two children.
Lord Justice Moylan, Lord Justice Baker and Lord Justice Popplewell had overseen a trial in July and published a written ruling on Friday.
They considered the case after immigration tribunal hearings.
A tribunal judge had initially ruled in favour of the man, concluding that deportation would disproportionately interfere with his partner and children’s right to respect for family life and that he was ‘most unlikely’ to reoffend.
That ruling had then been overturned by a more senior tribunal judge after Home Office ministers appealed.
The man then asked Court of Appeal judges, based in London, to consider the case.
They had concluded that the first tribunal judge’s ruling was right.
Appeal judges heard that the man had been convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine in 2013 after a trial, and given a four-and-a-half year jail sentence.
