Grenfell Tower fraudster jailed after claiming £90k by posing as victim

Jailed: Abdelkarim Rekaya
Met Police
Megan White30 November 2018
WEST END FINAL

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A man has been jailed for more than four years after committing a fraud of nearly £90,000 by pretending to be a victim of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Abdelkarim Rekaya enjoyed 209 nights in a four-star hotel, before being provided with a flat in Chelsea in the year after the fire.

The Tunisian 28-year-old was also granted 12 months leave to remain in the UK in November last year through the Grenfell Tower survivors policy.

Rekaya kept his head bowed as he was jailed for four years and six months at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.

He pleaded guilty at the same court in September to fraud by false representation and obtaining leave to remain by deception

A top police officer told the inquiry on Monday: 'I don't know how that building is still standing'
Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Rekaya, who came to the UK in 2008, listened to his sentence through an Arabic interpreter.

Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh said: "You decided to use the situation to your personal advantage, to enrich yourself dishonestly, by plundering the public funds put aside to assist the genuine victims of that disaster in their hour of need.

"You chose to exploit a national tragedy to improve your position."

Rekaya is the latest in a string of fraudsters to be sentenced in relation to the disaster.

‘After Grenfell, London needs a tenants czar’
AFP/Getty Images

So far, 13 people have been convicted in separate cases, with a total of more than £630,000 in bogus claims for money that was meant for those whose lives had been devastated.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told the court that Rekaya had claimed to be sleeping rough in the tower on the night of the blaze and had said he managed to escape through the front door.

Ms Farrelly said: "This was a complete and utter lie, but, as a result of attending the Westway (sports centre), he was provided with emergency accommodation in the Park Plaza County Hall Hotel."

Hotel costs came to more than £60,000, while the cost to cover the studio flat in Lots Road, Chelsea, between January this year and his arrest in June amounted to almost £3,000, she said.

Police said the total cost for the flat including furniture, electrical goods and bills was almost £16,000.

Smoke billows from the fire that as engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower
Rick Findler/PA

After taking into account utilities and other allowances including travel costs, the total cost to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was over £88,000.

He had refused to answer specific questions about the night of the fire, claiming he did not want to relive such a traumatic event.

Despite concerns raised by a housing officer of the borough after a meeting with Rekaya in October last year, it was decided that his accommodation and allowances should continue until the fraud investigation had concluded.

Mitigating, Anthony Metzer QC said his client had had a difficult life and fled Tunisia after being kidnapped and beaten up there.

He said Rekaya had had issues with alcohol and drugs and had previously slept rough in the tower block but not in the night of the fire.

He said: "This is not an easy case in which to offer mitigation.

"There is anger and there is resentment about persons like this defendant."

David Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Abdelkarim Rekaya falsely claimed he had been sleeping rough in Grenfell Tower so he could personally benefit from this tragedy.

"He made up an account of waking up and fleeing the building, but the CPS was able to disprove his lies, leading to this conviction."

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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