Tunisian National Gets 42 Months for £160,000 Benefits Fraud

Adam Mejri, a 47-year-old Tunisian national, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison at Southwark Crown Court on July 10 after admitting two counts of fraud and two counts of dishonestly failing to notify a change in circumstances, GB News reported.

Mejri obtained more than £52,000 in fraudulent employment support allowance payments, approximately £107,000 in housing benefit and £4,000 in council tax support, for a total exceeding £160,000. He wept in the dock and pleaded for mercy as the sentence was delivered.

In March 2018 Mejri entered Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council offices posing as Munir Altaib, who had left Britain for Tunisia in 2017. He repeatedly sought £5,000 from a compensation fund established for those affected by the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. Council officials did not authorise the payment after growing suspicious of his identity.

The genuine tenant contacted the council in April 2018 and warned that someone using his name and house had taken over. Mejri illegally let the Kensington and Chelsea property to migrants for £1,200 per month while claiming benefits and secretly earning rental income from two additional Westminster properties he failed to declare.

In July 2019 Mejri applied for Universal Credit using the stolen identity and avoided Jobcentre appointments, citing health problems.

On September 4, 2019, he attended an appointment under police surveillance, completed a health form listing depression and schizophrenia, and was arrested. Judge Neil Calver KC said: "What you did was a despicable thing, taking advantage of those living and around Grenfell Tower. " The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated it will pursue recovery of the stolen funds.