A woman has appeared in court charged with seven counts of fraud related to the Grenfell Tower fire.
Joyce Msokeri is accused of falsely claiming her husband died in the blaze and fraudulently claiming £10,000 of support that was being offered to survivors.
The 46-year-old from Sutton, south London, was arrested on 25 July and charged on 4 September. She will appear on Tuesday before Westminster magistrates court in central London.
The charges allege she made false representations to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for money and accommodation at the Hilton hotel, to charities in order to obtain clothing and food, to hospitals that she was the wife of a patient, and also made false representations to HMRC and a GP surgery in Kensington and Chelsea.
Sending the case to crown court, district judge Elizabeth Roscoe said: “It is a substantial amount of money. It is in circumstances where it is akin to a fraud on a vulnerable person who has been injured. It is similar to that in that of course there is a finite pot and the more that is taken out illegally, the less there is for those that deserve it.”
Msokeri is the second person to be charged with fraud in relation to the fire. Anh Nhu Nguyen, 52, pleaded not guilty to two counts of the offence after being accused of pretending his family died in the fire to claim almost £10,000 from the victims’ relief fund.
His trial is scheduled to start in early December.
