Yahoo News Grenfell 'liar' jailed for more than four years over £90,000 fraud
A man who pretended to be a victim of the Grenfell Tower disaster, committing a fraud of nearly £90,000, has been jailed.
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 short-haired and bearded 28-year-old kept his head bowed as he was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court to four years and six months in prison.
Rekaya is the latest in a string of fraudsters to be sentenced in relation to the disaster which struck in June 2017 and killed 72.
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.
Rekaya, from Tunisia, pleaded guilty at the same court in September to fraud by false representation and obtaining leave to remain by deception. He came to the UK in 2008.
‘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,’ said Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh said.
As well as fraudulently claiming accommodation, Rekaya was also granted 12 months leave to remain in the UK in November last year, through the Grenfell Tower survivors policy.
Of this the judge told him: ‘You chose to exploit a national tragedy to improve your position.’
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.’
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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 amounted to £15,895.77 including furniture, electrical goods and bills.
After taking into account utilities and other allowances including travel costs, the total cost to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea amounted to £88,183.70.
Rekaya was jailed for four years for fraud and a further six months for the second charge relating to his right to remain in the UK.
Mitigating, Anthony Metzer QC said his client had had a difficult life and fled Tunisia after being kidnapped and beaten up there.
Bellal Elguenuni, who the court heard had lived in Grenfell Tower for around 10 years, said such crimes had ‘stalled’ the fight for justice.
