Jailed £70k Black Lives Matter fraudster told to repay just £1
A FRAUDSTER who helped to organise a Black Lives Matter protest stole £70,000 but has been ordered to pay back just £1.
Xahra Saleem, 23, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after admitting fraud relating to a fundraiser linked to the BLM movement.
It had been intended to raise cash for Changing Your Mindset, a Bristolbased youth group, but the funds were never received.
Saleem helped run a protest that toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020.
Penniless
A proceeds of crime hearing at Bristol Crown Court heard that she was now penniless, despite benefiting by an estimated £70,000, and would only have to pay back a nominal £1.
Case officer DC Anthony Davis said: “Xahra Saleem admitted to defrauding a charity of a significant sum of money and received a custodial sentence for it last year.
“She made the conscious decision to take the money for herself, when it should have gone to young people in east Bristol. It has been calculated Saleem benefited to the value of £70,000. Saleem was instructed to pay a nominal amount following due consideration of her available assets.
“Should she obtain assets in the future, we would have the opportunity to seek a re-confiscation order.”
Saleem, of Romford, East London, had initially entered not guilty pleas to two charges of fraud. The second charge related to a separate online fundraising page set up in the days following the toppling of the Colston statue, called “Bristol Protesters Legal Fees”.
Judge Michael Longman told her she had “abused her position” as director of Changing Your Mindset. He said: “As an organiser of the Black Lives Matter march in Bristol, you gave yourself a high public profile which you used to raise money to help young people.
“That money you then used for your benefit – funding a lifestyle you could not normally afford.”