Four charged over Grenfell Tower blaze frauds
Four people are due to appear in court later today following the mounting investigation into fraud offences linked to the Grenfell Tower inferno.
Three men have been charged with fraud by false representation and a fourth man with drug offences, the Metropolitan Police Service has confirmed.
The quartet will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday (June 8).
Five other people – four men and one woman – who were arrested on Thursday (June 7) –have been released under investigation.
Eight men and one woman were detained on Thursday in a series of dawn raids at 11 addresses across London by the MPS.
The charged men are:
• Yonatan Eyob, 25, of no fixed abode, has been charged with possession with intent to supply class A drugs, possession of class A drugs and possession of criminal property;
• Abolaji Onafuye, 54, of Hammersmith, west London, has been charged with two counts of fraud by false representation;
• Koffi Kouakou, 54, of Victoria, has been charged with fraud by false representation; and
• Abdelkarim Rekaya, 28, of Chelsea, west London, has been charged with fraud by false representation and obtaining leave by deception.
Policing has already admitted to its biggest investigative challenge with the blaze tragedy that claimed 72 lives as the true scale of alleged fraudulent activity weighs heavily on the almost 200 detectives and staff still deployed.
Three fraudsters have already been jailed for offences relating to the tower block fire on June 14, 2017 and two more are awaiting sentence next week.
