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By Chris Cooke | Printed on Thursday 16 June 2022
Lil Wayne will not headline this weekend’s Strawberries And Creem competition in Cambridge after the UK Residence Workplace rejected his visa utility on the final minute due to his previous conviction within the US on gun costs.
Promoters of the competition mentioned in a brief assertion yesterday: “As a result of excessive circumstances past our management or affect, we’re very sorry to tell you that Lil Wayne is now unable to carry out on the competition. Lil Wayne has been refused entry to the UK instantly by the Residence Workplace in a final minute resolution. We’re deeply disenchanted by this sudden and unfavorable ruling”.
Though the Residence Workplace doesn’t normally touch upon the specifics of anyone particular person visa utility, a spokesperson did inform the BBC: “Any particular person who has been sentenced to a custodial sentence of twelve months or extra should have their utility refused”.
Wayne was jailed again in 2010 having plead responsible the earlier yr to the crime of ‘tried felony possession of a weapon’. That associated to an incident in 2007 when a police officer searched the rapper’s tour bus and found a .40 calibre handgun.
He initially denied proudly owning the gun however modified his plea in 2009 after the prosecution mentioned they believed they’d DNA proof that might hyperlink him to the weapon and it was confirmed that proof could be admissible in courtroom throughout any trial.
The rapper obtained a one yr jail sentence in relation to the gun crime conviction. And though he solely truly spent eight months in jail, as a result of the sentence was for one yr he has fallen foul of the UK Residence Workplace’s guidelines.
If solely Donald Trump was nonetheless President, perhaps the US authorities would have intervened and put stress on British ministers. In any case, Wayne was dealing with new costs within the US in relation to the possession of unlawful firearms which, due to the sooner conviction, might have resulted in a ten yr jail time period. However as Trump was on his manner out of the White Home he formally pardoned the rapper that means that prosecution didn’t proceed.
However with out Trump available to assist assure Wayne’s entry into the UK, promoters of Strawberries And Creem have as a substitute introduced in Ludacris to move up its Saturday line-up.
