In 2011 Cardos, 43, was convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint in her Edinburgh flat.
Separate figures show a record £18.7million was coughed up by taxpayers last year on deporting criminals.
READ MORE UK NEWS
The sums included £7.5million for commercial flights, plus £11.2million to charter jets to nations not served by UK airports.
David Spencer, at the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “This profligate waste of public money must stop immediately.”
The Home Office said: “We are deporting offenders earlier in a sentence and banning their return. It means we can protect our public from heinous crimes, while lowering costs on keeping them in jail.”