IMMIGRATION officers have prevented a man from returning to York to be sentenced for hitting a two-year-old child in the city.

Yingtao He, 35, went to China after pleading guilty to the offence and he tried to return to England to face justice in the sentencing hearing, York Magistrates Court heard.

But when He applied for a visa so that he could re-enter the UK, his application was rejected by British Government officials.

His solicitor Lee-Anne Robins- Hicks said the court that had adjourned sentencing from August until October had done so because he already had travel arrangements booked and it didn’t want to prevent him from travelling to China.

District Judge Adrian Lowe said the court had been well-intentioned but added: “For the sake of trying to do the right thing by He, the court has been left in an impossible position.

“He clearly has been making efforts to come back into the UK in order to resolve matters.

“It may be the very fact of his conviction is preventing He from achieving a visa.”

The District Judge decided to sentence He in his absence so that the case would be concluded and gave him an eight-week prison sentence suspended for six months.

The sentence can only be enforced if He returns to the UK.

He, formerly of York, admitted a charge of violence against the twoyear- old child.

The court heard that he lost his temper at the way the youngster was behaving.

Reading official documentation sent to the court about the visa application, Mr Lower said He had worked for 11 months in China for a company that had a British branch office. He had also deposited £4,500 in a bank account.

But the visa authorities had decided that 11 months wasn’t long enough for him to become “well established” in that job.

They were suspicious of where the money in the bank had come from, given the information they had about his income and outgoings.