The Grenfell Towers fire, in a London high-rise housing project, was not an act of terrorism, but of someone’s carelessness. It killed 72 people, and displaced many more.
This photograph of various fraudsters who've taken advantage of relief funds actually is diverse, but looking at the story, only one of these people seems to actually be British, the rest are non-white immigrants, or of immigrant stock.
This week father-of-five Abolaji Onafuye became the 14th person to be convicted of fraud following the blaze in June 2017.
The total taken from funds intended for victims by those convicted stands at around £670,000. Not only is it unlikely ever to be recouped but there are more cases in the pipeline.
Onafuye said he witnessed the blaze, and that two genuine victims to whom he had no relation were his sister and nephew.
He used his fictitious tale to claim more than £30,000 from Kensington and Chelsea council and charity Rugby Portobello Trust, and when his ruse was rumbled, insisted he had been rendered temporarily insane because he had been fasting for Ramadan.
You'll notice the Daily Mail doesn’t have to call him a "Muslim fraudster", he’s making that claim for himself.
Then there’s Derrick Peters:
DERRICK PETERS, 58
No fixed address
TOTAL: £40,000
Brazen burglar Peters was put up in a £192-a-night four-star hotel for six months after claiming to have been living with a resident who had died.
During his stay, where he racked up a £5,200 bill on drinks, food and laundry, he burgled a nearby flat.
He admitted the crime and was remanded in custody before sentencing, but he soon got out after writing a letter to the judge asking for leniency, explaining he had been a Grenfell resident.
Which he hadn’t, of course.
When his duplicity was uncovered, it was branded ‘repulsive’ and he was jailed for six years.
Mr. Peters is presumably of Caribbean background.
This fellow seems to be Vietnamese:
ANH NHU NGUYEN, 53
Bromley, South-East London
TOTAL: £11,270
With a tale of losing his home, wife and son, Nguyen gave tearful interviews about his own escape and the horror of climbing over dead bodies. The serial conman had never lived in the tower block and didn’t have a wife or children. Yet he even shook Prince Charles’s hand when the royal visited a relief centre.
He scammed more than £11,000 in the fortnight after the fire.
It later emerged he had 17 aliases and 28 convictions for 56 offences over more than 30 years. He admitted two counts of fraud by false representation and was jailed for 21 months in February.
It never seems to have occurred to the British authorities to deport him during that time.
The only actual Briton did not claim to be a victim, she was working for the charity that distributed the money:
JENNY McDONAGH, 39
Abbey Wood, South-East London
TOTAL: £62,000
Recruited by Kensington and Chelsea council to manage a public fund for survivors, McDonagh began stealing days after starting her job — even treating herself to five-star holidays to Dubai and New York over 10 months.
Photos were found of her posing in a £99 Hobbs dress bought on a credit card set up for a victim. She blew £16,000 on gambling. She admitted theft, money laundering and a second fraud charge while employed by an NHS trust in Kent, and was jailed for five and a half years in September.
Why aren’t any of the others white? Perhaps because no one would believe a white person lived in Grenfell Towers.
