Grenfell Tower fraudster who claimed £86,000 while posing as survivor is jailed

A Grenfell Tower fraudster who falsley claimed £86,000 while pretending to be a "bereaved survivor" has been jailed.

Yonatan Eyob, 26, plundered £86,000 of public money on services at the Hilton hotel after pretending he was living at flat 182 of the west London tower block.

But Abulaziz and Faouzia El-Wahabi and their three children Yasin, Mehdi and Nurhuda all died in that flat in June last year, and a court heard Eyob took advantage of this.

The callous criminal racked up a £60,945 hotel bill, charged the Royal Borough of Kensington a parking and laundry bill of £9,968.36 and was also given pre-paid cards to spend on food and other necessities to the value of £15,968.

He even complained about the wi-fi and quality of the food, and was shown an exclusive house in nearby Bayswater at which he could have stayed.

But he was today jailed for six years and eight months for fraud, possession of class A with intent to supply and possession of criminal property.

Sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Giles Raleigh-Curtis said: "The fire at Grenfell tower in June 2017 was a tragedy in which 72 innocent lives were lost, families ripped apart, and communities devastated.

"It was a disaster which shocked the nation. Most people reacted with horror and dismay, and feelings of deep sympathy and profound concern for the survivors, and those others most directly affected.

"Many did what they could to help in a spontaneous outpouring of generosity and compassion.

"Your response was different; 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 hours of need.

"It was a claim false and dishonest from the start. You were profiting from the deaths of those people and the fact that they were in effect silenced."

The court heard Eyob spent some of the council’s cash on a holiday with his girlfriend in Paris.

The sister of Mr El-Wahabi, Hanan Wahabi, said his actions had "polluted" her memories of her brother.

Eyob was arrested in possession of £6,720 worth of drugs and £3,000 in cash.

The crook, from North Kensington, London, watched the tower burn on the night of the blaze.

Catherine Farrelly, prosecuting, said: "He was treated by the borough as a bereaved survivor and therefore given top priority.

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"As a result of that then he was provided with hotel accommodation from June 2017 to June 2018.

"In addition to that he was provided with food and a travel card for zones one to two.

"He complained he was finding it difficult to eat the food at the hotel.

"He never mentioned any of the friends he claimed to have lost in the fire."

Due to this, police became suspicious of Eyob’s story.

When police raided his room on June 7 this year, they found designer clothes and jewellery next to his drug dealing scales and a list of customer’s names and numbers.

Eyob has two previous convictions one for robbery and one from 2014 for possession with intent to supply cannabis.

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