A woman who falsely claimed to have been a resident in the Grenfell Tower fire has been found guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of possession of ID document with improper intention.
Joyce Msokeri, 46 of Ambleside Gardens, Sutton appeared today at Southwark Crown Court today, Thursday, 15 March, where she was found guilty to three counts of fraud contrary to sections 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 and one count of possession of an identity document with improper intention, contrary to section 4 (1) and (2) of the Identity Documents Act 2010.
She has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday, 6 April.
Detectives from the Met launched an investigation after suspicions were raised about the validity of Msokeri’s claims.
Msokeri came forward to authorities in the immediate aftermath of the fire and was assigned family liaison officers after she claimed that she was a resident of Grenfell Tower and had lost her husband and sister in law in the fire.
She provided officers with a very detailed account of how her husband had gone to help his sister who was staying on another floor within the tower. She claimed that her husband had given her a wet towel to shield her face and directed her to leave the building and get to safety.
Msokeri stated that she did not see her husband or sister in law again and claimed financial support after saying she had lost all her property during the fire. She was provided with emergency funds and filled a room at a Hilton hotel with donations from well-wishers, and hatched an elaborate to claim insurance on her fictitious partner’s death.
As the investigation developed police noticed clear inconsistencies in Msokeri’s story and after looking into of her movements before and after the fire, found that telephone records showed that she could not have been in or near the Grenfell Tower at the time of the fire.
Officers traced Msokeri’s actual address to Sutton where Msokeri was living at the time of the fire and it was also established that she was not a resident of Grenfell.
She was found guilty following a trial at Southwark Crown Court of three counts of fraud against the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), the Hilton and charities respectively, and a further charge of possessing a false document.
Msokeri was not in court to hear the jury’s verdicts as she remains in hospital after being admitted on Monday for medical tests.
Judge Michael Grieve QC declined to sentence her in her absence, instead fixing a sentencing date for 6 April.
The defendant, of Ambleside Gardens, Sutton, south London, had repeatedly tried to frustrate justice by faking illnesses – including by using a wheelchair for which she had no medical need.
She was eventually admitted to hospital for tests towards the end of the case but the trial continued in her absence.
Seventy-one people died when a fire ravaged the high-rise residential building on June 14 last year.
She also claimed to police that her missing husband appeared in footage recovered from the blaze showing the final moments of two men and two women, even though both men had been identified by their own families.
In his closing speech, prosecutor David Jeremy QC said: ‘What the evidence demonstrates is that she committed these crimes through greed and she got away with it for a certain amount of time through her skill at manipulation.’
The defendant created three different personas for her non-existent husband in a bid to claim compensation, eventually persuading a man with a history of mental health problems to pose as her spouse so she could claim he had miraculously been found weeks after the fire.
The court heard she had filled 10 suitcases with new goods taken from the store set up to help survivors and applied for a number of phones and laptops.
Source: Metro UK
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