Fifteen people 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, were rehoused in as a minimal three new properties in a luxury pattern furnished by John Lewis.
One family member is Masi Naqshbandi, one of Britain’s most notorious ‘crash for money’ conmen.
He used to be jailed for more than seven years in 2012 after he and his gang were convicted of staging 250 crashes to originate insurance protection claims rate £6.5million.
Masi Naqshbandi (pictured) is one of Britain’s most notorious ‘crash for money’ conmen
Masi, 33, ragged the proceeds to fund a lavish standard of living, which included a vacation at the seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.
His sentence used to be lowered to 6 years on allure and he used to be freed in 2015.
Final September he met Prince William at the originate of a enhance centre for survivors of the Grenfell fire on June 14 closing three hundred and sixty five days, which killed seventy two folks.
The Naqshbandi family inform that a three-bedroom flat on the zero.33 floor of the tower used to be their primary instruct sooner than the fire.
Those pronouncing they lived in the flat consist of a couple and six adult teenagers, as a minimal three of whom contain companions and a young child every.
However, supreme four names are believed to appear on the fashioned tenancy agreement.
Concerns amongst Kensington and Chelsea council officials grew when one of the considerable kin started list the flat as their address on noble documentation after the tragedy.
Fifteen kin of the Naqshbandi family converse they shared a three-bedroom flat on the zero.33 floor of Grenfell Tower sooner than the June 14 fire
Two days after the fire, Masi registered the tower as the address on his son’s starting up certificates, nearly a month after the starting up.
Under council principles, adults who can demonstrate they lived in the tower at the time of the blaze are every eligible for rehousing with their households, with all rent and utility payments waived until July 2019.
Earlier than then, they are keep up in inns and given a weekly allowance of up to £300 to duvet charges.
The family denies any wrongdoing, and officials web one of the considerable kin contain legitimately benefited from assistance.
But the surprisingly large option of claimants concerned by the case has led the council to originate up a fraud investigation. It is identified that one of the considerable proof has been passed to police.
Officers feel there are many bereaved Grenfell survivors peaceable residing in inns and other emergency accommodation who are more deserving of serve.
‘Cash for crash’ conman who met Prince William after Grenfell fire
Masi Naqshbandi, who met Prince William at the outlet of a Grenfell enhance centre in September, used to be the ringleader of a London-essentially based entirely organised crime gang which perpetrated one of Britain’s supreme ‘money for crash’ frauds.
In 2007 and 2008 he organised and staged 260 fraudulent accidents in an strive to defraud the insurance protection industry of £6.5million.
The crew would submit fraudulent non-public misfortune, misfortune, car rent and storage claims under the guise of a sound accident management company named Actual Accident Helpline.
Masi Naqshbandi (pictured left) met Prince William (excellent) at the outlet of a Grenfell enhance centre in September
In some conditions autos were deliberately damaged to mimic an accident, while in others claims were fabricated by presenting faux paperwork.
The total claims raked in tens of 1000’s of pounds, helping to fund Naqshbandi’s lavish standard of living.
Police investigated after one insurer alerted the Insurance protection Fraud Bureau.
In 2012 Naqshbandi used to be sentenced to seven years and three months in penal advanced for conspiracy to defraud. He used to be freed in 2015. Co-conspirator Sabaoon Hillaman obtained four years and ten months in penal advanced.
Participants of the Naqshbandi family were given as a minimal three new apartments in a housing block put apart for Grenfell survivors at Kensington Row, a excessive-end pattern in West London.
No longer lower than one relative stays in a four-star hotel shut to Regent’s Park – despite the indisputable fact that the booking is under Masi Naqshbandi’s name.
An uncle from Afghanistan is furthermore receiving taxpayer-funded back from the council. He’s said to contain registered his riding licence at the Grenfell flat closing month, eight months after the fire.
One of the most siblings, convicted of gang-associated violence, has been linked to an address in South London. Three kin were belief to were in Australia at the time of the inferno.
Masi, his partner Mojda Habib, 30, and their son contain lately been moved correct into a brand new flat.
When advised his and his partner’s names seem on an electoral roll dated December 2017 at his in-authorized pointers’ address in Harrow in North London, he said it used to be an address he gave for excellent reasons for ‘overnight stays’ and ‘day visits’ from prison.
He insisted this weekend that he and his partner were residing in Grenfell Tower neatly sooner than the fire and that he had paperwork to demonstrate this.
He said some kin slept in the lounge and shared bedrooms, but admitted that your entire family did no longer finish in the flat at the same time.
‘We’ve bought proof that we now were registered with Kensington and Chelsea Council for two decades when [my family] first moved to this country,’ he advised the Sunday Cases.
‘They’ve moved us like a soccer – east, west, north, south and even to Coventry – but they in the ruin gave my family this council home [in Grenfell] in July 2016, by which time the entire teenagers were grown up.’
EIGHT fraud conditions were linked to Grenfell Tower catastrophe
Scotland Yard has investigated as a minimal eight conditions of fraud in connection with the Grenfell Tower fire.
In a single case, a Vietnamese unlawful immigrant pretended his wife and 12-three hundred and sixty five days-frail son were killed in the blaze so he may maybe furthermore get charity handouts.
Anh Nhu Nguyen used to be comforted by Prince Charles after he claimed he had misplaced ogle of his family in a smoke-crammed stairwell.
The fifty three-three hundred and sixty five days-frail pocketed £eleven,270 from charities and Kensington and Chelsea Council. He used to be keep up in inns and given dresses, laptops and money.
But after giving tearful interviews about his obtain away, it emerged that he used to be a convicted fraudster with 17 aliases who in point of fact lived 12 miles away in Beckenham, South-East London.
Pictured: Grenfell Tower in Kensington, west London after the devastating fire
He had 28 old convictions for Fifty six offences spanning more than 30 years, along side theft, dishonesty, arson and improper bodily misfortune.
Nguyen utilized for a brand new passport by claiming his had been incinerated. Final month he used to be jailed for 21 months after admitting two counts of fraud by faux illustration and one of creating an false instruct to plot a passport.
Final week survivor Eamon Zada, 35, used to be given a 12-week suspended penal advanced sentence after the stays of his hashish oil factory were expose in the burnt-out block.
He admitted one count of being interesting in the provision of hashish.
Masi’s father-in-laws Amrullah Habib advised the Day after day Mail: ‘He lived in Grenfell. He lived here quick because they are from Grenfell. Earlier than, they lived all over the put. Very some distance-off. I’m in a position to no longer take into accout their address or their instruct.’
Asked how prolonged his son-in-laws had been residing in Grenfell Tower, he said: ‘Per chance a few months. He’s now not any longer residing here.’
Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy chief of the council, said: ‘Fraud is a local the council takes very severely, no longer excellent because taxpayers’ money is being ragged to enhance folks, but because fantastic survivors and bereaved households contain raised concerns with us.
‘Where officers contain doubts, they document it, after which investigations win put. Investigating and proving any obtain of fraud repeatedly takes time.
‘It is vastly predominant that public belief of survivors and bereaved is now not any longer tarnished by the acts of a in point of fact petite minority.’
Scotland Yard said it may maybe investigate ‘anyone who we judge is fraudulently benefiting from the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower’.
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