Grenfell ‘parasites’ in £125k con jailed
Illegal immigrants lied that they lived in tower to stay in Britain – then ran up huge hotel bills
TWO illegal immigrants were jailed yesterday for lying about living in Grenfell Tower so they could stay in the UK and pocket £125,000.
Elaine Douglas and Tommy Brooks were branded ‘parasitic’ by a judge.
They posed as survivors after the Government announced that illegal immigrants who lived in the tower could stay in Britain. They plucked two names from the list of the dead and callously claimed they lived with them on the 19th floor of Grenfell.
The couple spent eight months living in a four-star hotel at a cost of £400 a night to the taxpayer as genuine victims tried to rebuild their lives. They also spent more than £20,000 on meals and clothing on pre-paid credit cards given to them by Kensington and Chelsea council in west London.
During their stay, Douglas had the ‘breath-taking cheek’ to complain about her room and the quality of the food.
The couple entered Britain illegally from Jamaica on separate flights 16 years ago, but vanished before they could be deported.
They re- emerged when they posed as survivors and despite glaring discrepancies in their stories, officials granted Douglas, 51, and Brooks, 52, temporary leave to remain in the country.
Had they not been arrested nine months later, they would have been allowed to stay in Britain permanently and placed on a priority list for a council house.
Yesterday Douglas was jailed for three years and three months and Brooks was jailed for three years. Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Wood said: ‘I regard this case as a parasitic fraud in the wake of a human catastrophe.’
Douglas visited a Grenfell community centre called The Curve six weeks after the disaster last year and claimed she lived with Brooks in flat 91 on the 19th floor. She said they survived because they had been at a friend’s party on the night of the blaze.
Douglas told aid workers that she had been too scared to come forward sooner because of her immigration status. She persuaded Brooks to concoct the same story and he visited The Curve ten days later and said he lived in flat 19, Isleworth Crown Court was told. The pair later told a social worker they lived in flat 137 with Mariem Elgwahry, 27, and Mohamednur Tuccu, 44, who both died in the fire.
There were major flaws in their stories. Flats 19 and 137 did not exist and flat 91 was on the 12th floor, not the 19th.
Meanwhile, Mr Tuccu did not live in the tower, but would often stay with family in flat 166. Fear-
ful of being criticised, officials gave them each a room at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel, a Grade II-listed building close to many of London’s museums.
Douglas spent 276 nights in the hotel, running up a total bill to the taxpayer of £67,125. Brooks started off at the Radisson Blu before being moved to another hotel. His bill totalled £58,397. They were finally arrested in May and admitted two counts of fraud by false representation and one of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.
Brooks’s lawyer Khalid Missouri said his client admitted his behaviour was ‘humanity at its lowest’.
In a statement read to the court, Grenfell survivor Edward Daffarn said: ‘It is upsetting beyond words to learn that the tragedy is being used by individuals to exploit our misery for their own gain.
‘It is pouring salt on to the wounds of the bereaved and the ex-tower residents to know that the death and trauma we have had to endure is simply seen as an opportunity for others to profit and exploit.’