Fraudster who claimed father died in Grenfell Tower is jailed

A STUDENT who claimed to have lost his father in the Grenfell Tower fire was jailed for 18 months yesterday.

Mohammad Gamoota, 31, was the fifth fraudster to be convicted of trying to exploit the tragedy last June.

He obtained £5,000 and free hotel stays by telling social work staff that he had been living in the tower block with his father.

Gamoota chose the name of one of the 71 victims of the fire, Abel Salem, at random from newspaper coverage, but had no family link to him, Isleworth Crown Court was told.

Judge Robin Johnson told Gamoota said: “You had no connection with this family.”

Gamoota said he was living with his father on the 24th floor and only survived because he was praying at his mosque when the fire broke out. The total fraud amounted to £6,784. The court heard that Gamoota first approached council staff at the Westway Centre two days after the fire on June 16, when he was assigned a social worker by the council.

The social worker spoke with him on June 22 and met with him in the lobby of the Holiday Inn, where he told her he lived with his father in flat 219 on the 24th floor. The court heard that he claimed to have been a resident in Grenfell Tower for seven years and said that at the time of the blaze he was at midnight prayers.

Claire Mcgrath, defending, told the court that Gamoota’s partner was pregnant with their child at the time and he desperately needed the cash. The solicitor added: “Looking back now, he is extremely ashamed of his actions.”

Benjamin Holt, prosecuting, read out a statement from Corrine Jones, a Grenfell Tower resident, who described Gamoota’s fraud as “disgusting and distasteful”.

Another resident, Manuel Alves, said: “Words cannot express how disgusted I am that the fraudsters have had the audacity to pull such a stunt.

‘They have violated the real victims and survivors by abusing the system put in place to help us.”

Gamoota admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Earlier this week, illegal immigrants Elaine Douglas, 51, and Tommy Brooks, 52, admitted fraud after receiving £125,000 in payments.

Joyce Msokeri, 47, was jailed for four and a half years in relation to a Grenfell Tower fraud, while Anh Nhu Nguyen, 52, was also jailed earlier this year for 21 months for pretending he lost family members in the blaze.