Grenfell Tower fraudster who posed as widow of fire victim to be sentenced

Joyce Msokeri, 47, claimed she escaped the west London fire last year and thought her husband had died when in fact she was single and living miles away.

She then filled a room at a Hilton hotel with donations from well-wishers, and concocted an elaborate ploy to claim insurance on her fictitious partner’s death.

When her scheme faltered, she preyed on a vulnerable man to play her husband, telling investigators she found he had been living in a cave in Margate, Kent, where he was fed by tourists, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Prosecutor David Jeremy QC said: “What the evidence demonstrates is that she committed these crimes through greed and she got away with it for a certain amount of time through her skill at manipulation.”

The court heard she made claims to volunteers at the Westway Centre set up to help survivors after presenting there the day after the fire on the afternoon of June 15.

Msokeri’s story was called into question when she was unable to give the number of her flat in the tower, despite claiming to have lived there for five months before the fire.

Msokeri of Ambleside Gardens, Sutton, south London,  was found guilty of three counts of fraud against the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), the Hilton and charities plus a further charge of possessing a false document.

She will be sentenced by Judge Michael Grieve QC at the Old Bailey on Friday.