£1million fraud probe into 15 family members who claim they lived in one Grenfell f lat
FIFTEEN members of the same family are being investigated by fraud officers after receiving up to £1million in public funds by claiming they lived in a single flat in Grenfell Tower.
The Naqshbandi family, who are from Afghanistan, have been rehoused in at least three new homes in a luxury development furnished by John Lewis.
One family member is Masi Naqshbandi, one of Britain’s most notorious ‘crash for cash’ conmen. He was jailed for more than seven years in 2012 after he and his gang were convicted of staging 250 crashes to make insurance claims worth £6.5million.
Masi, 33, used the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle, which included a holiday at the seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. His sentence was reduced to six years on appeal and he was freed in 2015.
Last September he met Prince William at the launch of a support centre for survivors of the Grenfell fire on June 14 last year, which killed 72 people.
The Naqshbandi family claim that a threebedroom flat on the third floor of the tower was their main residence before the fire.
Those saying they lived in the flat include a couple and six adult children, at least three of whom have partners and a young child each. However, only four names are believed to appear on the original tenancy agreement. Concerns among Kensington and Chelsea council officials grew when some of the relatives started listing the flat as their address on official documentation after the tragedy.
Two days after the fire, Masi registered the tower as the address on his son’s birth certificate, almost a month after the birth.
Under council rules, adults who can prove they lived in the tower at the time of the blaze are each eligible for rehousing with their families, with all rent and utility bills waived until July 2019.
Before then, they are put up in hotels and given a weekly allowance of up to £300 to cover costs.
The family denies any wrongdoing, and officials accept some of the relatives have legitimately benefited from assistance.
But the surprisingly large number of claimants involved in the case has led the council to begin a fraud investigation. It is understood that some of the evidence has been passed to police.
Officials feel there are many bereaved Grenfell survivors still living in hotels and other emergency accommodation who are more deserving of help.
Members of the Naqshbandi family have been given at least three new flats in a housing block set aside for Grenfell survivors at Kensington Row, a high- end development in West London.
At least one relative remains in a four-star hotel near Regents Park – although the booking is under Masi Naqshbandi’s name.
An uncle from Afghanistan is also receiving taxpayer-funded aid from the council. He is said to have registered his driving licence at the Grenfell flat last month, eight months after the fire.
One of the siblings, convicted of gang-related violence, has been linked to an address in South London. Three family members were thought to have been in Australia at the time of the inferno.
Masi, his partner Mojda Habib, 30, and their son have recently been moved into a new flat.
When told his and his partner’s names appear on an electoral roll dated December 2017 at his in-laws’ address in Harrow in North London, he said it was an address he gave for legal reasons for ‘overnight stays’ and ‘day visits’ from jail.
He insisted this weekend that he and his partner were living in Grenfell Tower well before the fire and that he had documents to prove this. He said some relatives slept in the living room and shared bedrooms, but admitted that the entire family did not stay in the flat at the same time.
‘We’ve got evidence that we’ve been registered with Kensington and Chelsea Council for 20 years when [my family] first moved to this country,’ he told the Sunday Times. ‘They’ve moved us like a football – east, west, north, south and even to Coventry – but they finally gave my family this council house [in Grenfell] in July 2016, by which time all the children were grown up.’
Masi’s father-in-law Amrullah Habib told the Daily Mail: ‘He lived in Grenfell. He lived here temporarily because they are from Grenfell. Before, they lived everywhere. Very far away. I cannot remember their address or their area.’
Asked how long his son-in-law had been living in Grenfell Tower, he said: ‘Maybe a few months. He isn’t living here.’
Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of the council, said: ‘Fraud is an issue the council takes very seriously, not just because taxpayers’ money is being used to support people, but because genuine survivors and bereaved families have raised concerns with us.
‘Where officers have doubts, they report it, and then investigations take place. Investigating and proving any type of fraud always takes time. It is hugely important that public perception of survivors and bereaved is not tarnished by the acts of a very small minority.’
Scotland Yard said it would investigate ‘anyone who we think is fraudulently profiting from the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower’.
‘Officials feel others are more deserving’