Britain’s Grenfell fire fraud tops $1m

LONDON: Fraudsters have stolen more than $1 million from funds intended for survivors of a deadly 2017 fire in a British residential tower block, police said on Thursday. The blaze that engulfed Grenfell Tower in London killed 71 people, the worst domestic fire in Britain since World War II. Seventeen people have now been convicted of fraud, taking the total misappropriated to £877,465 ($1.13 million, 1.03 million euros).

Alvin Thompson, 51, became the seventeenth person found guilty after he said he had been sleeping rough in the 24-storey tower and claimed £95,706 worth of financial handouts, hotel and housing costs.

He was found guilty of two counts of fraud and sentenced on Thursday to five years and six months for the first count and four years for the second count, with the two sentences to be served concurrently.

He claimed he had been sleeping rough in the tower for two years but investigators linked him to an address in north London. He claimed he helped people escape and had suffered from survivor´s guilt and flashbacks of stepping over bodies to escape.