Becker gets 2-year suspended term for tax dodging

A German court found Boris Becker guilty of tax evasion on Thursday but spared him jail by handing him a two-year suspended sentence and a fine.

Becker, one of Germany's top post-war celebrities for his heroics on the tennis court, admitted on Wednesday he made a mistake by failing to pay taxes worth some $3 million.

The three-time Wimbledon champion had sought clemency with his courtroom admission at the start of his trial and by paying the tax he owed the state last week. The court demanded he pay a fine of 300,000 euros ($293,000).

State prosecutors had demanded Becker be jailed for three years and six months for dodging German taxes and lying about where he lived, claiming residence in the tax haven of Monaco while actually staying in Munich between 1991 and 1993.

Becker's lawyers had said his crimes did not warrant jail. They had argued that he had paid 45 million marks ($22 million) in German tax since moving his residence back to Germany in 1994 as well as the tax for 1991 to 1993.

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