Everyone at the 2OV office had a good giggle when we found out how Boris Becker was trying to avoid paying back the money.

Yup – Boris proudly announced that he had become a “sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs” attaché for the Central African Republic, and thus had diplomatic immunity against those implementing legal action against him for outstanding debts.

Not just any old debt, because estimates put that figure at £54 million (R972 million).

Here’s the thing – his efforts to wangle his way out of those debts have hit a snafu, as the Guardian reports:

The Central African Republic has denied that Boris Becker is one of its official diplomats and said a passport the former tennis star claimed should give him diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in the UK is invalid.

“The diplomatic passport that he has is a fake,” the foreign ministry’s chief of staff, Cherubin Moroubama, told Agence-France Presse. He said the document’s serial number corresponded to one of a batch of passports stolen in 2014.

AFP said the passport, of which it had seen a copy, was dated 19 March 2018 but had not been stamped or signed by the country’s foreign minister, Charles Armel Doubane.

Sorry, Boris, but it seems you’re talking bollocks.

Doubane [below, dishing out some great side-eye] wasn’t done, and went a step further:

Doubane told journalists in Bangui that Becker was “not an official diplomat for the Central African Republic. To be recognised as a diplomat, it would require not just president’s nomination but also my signature as foreign minister.”

Moroubama said the job Becker claimed to be doing for his nation – which, despite abundant natural resources including gold, diamonds and uranium, ranks bottom of the UN’s human development index – “does not exist”.

The job doesn’t even exist.

As John McEnroe might say in a fit of rage, “you cannot be serious“.

It’s going to be interesting to see how his lawyers handle the London High Court case from here on out, having informed them last Friday about how Becker’s gig gave him diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings under the Vienna convention.

I would suggest that Becker find a broom closet to hide in, but then someone might end up pregnant.

[source:guardian]