logo
More than 90 criminal charges are brought against 41 migrants living in one taxpayer-funded hotel

More than 90 criminal charges are brought against 41 migrants living in one taxpayer-funded hotel

Daily Mail​a day ago
More than 90 criminal charges have been brought against 41 migrants living in just one taxpayer-funded hotel.
Court records show migrants staying at the Thistle City Barbican in central London have been accused of offences including sexual assault, arson, theft, burglary, carrying knives, assault and drug offences over the past three years.
Residents who live nearby last night told the MoS that the police are regularly called to the three-star hotel, which has also been identified as a hub of illegal working.
Council worker Ufuoma Odoh, 49, said his Volvo XC40 was damaged last month when a television was flung out of a fourth-floor window. The TV smashed the parked car's back window.
Mr Odoh said. 'It was the second time my car had been damaged by the same set of people.'
Bledar Qirjo, who has run a Greek restaurant near the hotel for six months, said his business was suffering because of the behaviour of some of the asylum seekers.
He added: 'My customers won't come after 9pm because they feel scared.'
Those staying at the hotel who have been convicted of crimes include Alem Amiri, who pleaded guilty to arson in April last year and was jailed for a year.
The MoS understands Amiri launched his arson attack against the very taxpayer-funded hotel that was providing him refuge.
The Home Office refused to discuss his case.
Our revelations raise new questions about a hotel that has already been named as a hub for illegal working.
Last month, pictures emerged of migrants staying at the Thistle City Barbican riding off in Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats jackets with food bags, while electric bikes were seen outside.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Half of all criminal convictions decided in secret
Half of all criminal convictions decided in secret

Telegraph

time27 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Half of all criminal convictions decided in secret

Nearly half of all convictions in England and Wales are being decided in secret by a single magistrate without the defendant appearing in court or having any legal representation, a new report has revealed. Out of a total of 1.5 million convictions handed down last year, some 772,580 were issued by magistrates behind closed doors under a system designed to speed up justice and clear the backlog of cases left by the pandemic. The number of such prosecutions has doubled since their introduction in 2015 under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) where a volunteer magistrate sits alone with an on-call legal adviser to pass judgment on as many as a 100 cases a day. They now account for two thirds of all magistrates' cases. At least 110 different crimes can be prosecuted under the SJP system, from speeding and out-of-date MOTs to failing to get your child to attend school and littering. However, the majority (73 per cent) of those accused do not plea guilty or not guilty, double the rate of 38 per cent in open magistrates' hearings, according to an investigation by Transform Justice, a charity that campaigns for fair justice. Most defendants do not enter any plea partly because prosecution forms are sent by post with no proof of receipt required. This means they can end up at the wrong address, get lost or be dismissed as junk mail, according to the report. 'People are given three weeks to fill in the prosecution form and are not sent a reminder. Those who do not respond to the prosecution notice are nearly always judged as guilty and sentenced in their absence,' said Transform Justice. 'This means most people convicted under the SJP have not pleaded, and may not even know or understand they have been prosecuted. Many SJP cases are reopened by defendants who say they never received the prosecution notice, and only knew about it when they got a letter saying they had been convicted.' Most SJP offences are 'strict liability', which means prosecutors do not have to prove the defendant intended to commit the offence, nor whether the prosecution is in the public interest. ''I made a mistake' is not a valid legal defence,' said the report. As a result, people have been fined for minor errors. One person was prosecuted for selecting a 16-25 age railcard discount when they had a 26-30 railcard, even though the price for the tickets was the same. Transform Justice said that the way many of the prosecution forms were structured meant any mitigating factors a defendant might want to put forward, such as any disabilities, could be missed or ignored. 'The greatest injustice of the SJP is that it facilitates convicting people for mistakes, and for errors made due to illness or disability. We are prosecuting people at an industrial scale, often without any evidence they intended to commit a crime, with few safeguards,' said Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice. 'There is nothing wrong with some crimes being strict liability (where no intention needs to be proved), but to do so using an inaccessible, untransparent system is surely unfair.' Organisations that can prosecute using SJP include police, DVLA, local councils, the BBC and train companies but unlike the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), there is no requirement to conduct a test of whether a prosecution is in the public interest. An investigation by the Office for Road and Rail (ORR) found four train operating companies (TOCs) had no formal test for deciding whether to prosecute in the public interest and it was 'unclear' if there was a test in other TOCs. It found some SJP prosecutors had no legal qualifications. The majority of TOCs 'appear not to require any formal qualifications or accreditation for their prosecution staff, relying instead on various combinations of on-the-job training and in-house or externally delivered training,' said the ORR. Some prosecutors had as little as five days' training. 'Where TOCs provided information on the length of internal training, this varied considerably – from five days to three months,' said the ORR. In one case, Sarah Hodgson, a rail passenger, challenged her fare evasion charge. Magistrates found the case so weak they asked why the rail company went ahead with the prosecution. Its legal representative said: 'I'm just representative of them and my instruction is to proceed. I'm not an expert in railways laws.' An SJP conviction is a criminal conviction but defendants can only avoid a criminal record if they pay the fine. The average SJP fine is £284 but can be as low as £40 or as high as £10,000 for the worst Covid offences. They can also be ramped up by prosecuting authorities adding on legal costs. The SJP procedure has been successfully challenged after a campaign led by Christian Waters, who won a landmark ruling that the SJP had been wrongly used for 74,000 prosecutions for alleged fare evasion, leading to the convictions being quashed. As a result of that case and campaigns by Transform Justice, the Government is considering how to improve scrutiny of prosecutors. Ms Gibbs said there needed to be 'more reform and fast' to end the 'systemic injustice'. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'The Government recently consulted on the Single Justice Procedure and regulation of private prosecutors to review what more can be done to support vulnerable defendants, and we will respond in due course. 'The decision to prosecute cases under the Single Justice Procedure is made by the prosecuting authority, and only uncontested and non-imprisonable offences are eligible.'

Smoke bombs and bottles thrown at police during migrant hotel protest
Smoke bombs and bottles thrown at police during migrant hotel protest

Telegraph

time27 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Smoke bombs and bottles thrown at police during migrant hotel protest

Bottles and pink smoke bombs have been hurled at police during a protest outside a migrant hotel in Essex. On Sunday night, scores of police officers stood by in riot gear as the crowd gathered in the early evening outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, which was protected by a line of police vans and six-foot-high fencing. The protest was the third outside the hotel in the last week following the arrest of an Ethiopian migrant who was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. On Thursday evening, eight officers were injured and police vehicles were damaged as a demonstration at the hotel spilt over into violence. The mood of the protest on Sunday was largely peaceful at first, with several people in the crowd draped in Union flags while others carried placards, including one that read: 'You are paying billions to prop up a broken asylum system! Look after our own.' Some marched down the road carrying an England flag emblazoned with the words, 'Save Our Kids', while others in the crowd called for protests to be held weekly until the hotel closed. There were intermittent chants of 'Keir Starmer's a w----r' and 'Whose streets? Our streets', from people in the crowd, which included men, women and children. Events turned uglier as several glass bottles were thrown and shattered on the ground in front of police. At least one pink smoke bomb appeared to land on top of a police van. Essex Police had announced a Section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 banning anyone from wearing a face covering at the protest tonight, and saying they risked arrest if they did. Several members of the crowd flouted the order by wearing balaclavas or scarves pulled across their faces with hoodies over their heads, but police did not appear to confront them. Essex Police admitted that 'one individual' had been arrested in Epping and taken into custody, but no details were given. Much of the anger at the protest on Thursday was directed against a group of anti-racism protesters who marched through the town towards the hotel. Members of the crowd hurled objects, including plastic bottles, eggs and a flour bomb, at the group as officers formed a protective cordon around them, and police vehicles were attacked. But no rival protesters turned up on Sunday night, removing the risk of a potential flashpoint, and it appeared to pass off more peacefully. An Essex Police spokesman said: 'We have a full policing plan in place to ensure the safety of everyone who is attending. 'To protect the public, this evening we have put a power in place to require the removal of face coverings (under section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994). 'If you are planning to protest peacefully about issues which are important to you and your community, then this is entirely lawful. 'However, on Thursday night, we unfortunately saw incidents of violence and aggression which have no place on our streets.' They added: 'We will deal robustly and quickly with anyone intent on coming into Epping to commit selfish criminal behaviour. 'We will police impartially, without fear or favour, and have legal responsibilities to protect those who want to exercise their rights peacefully, and we cannot prevent, hinder or restrict peaceful assembly. 'The right to peaceful protest is protected by law and allows everyone freedom of expression, but this must be done respectfully, and if there is a risk to public order, we will act appropriately. 'Thursday's protest saw people wearing face coverings and committing serious acts of disorder. 'Anyone who refuses to remove a face covering when required to do so is likely to be arrested and, if convicted, could face imprisonment.'

NIGEL FARAGE: If you're a criminal, I'm putting you on notice. Follow the law or face serious justice
NIGEL FARAGE: If you're a criminal, I'm putting you on notice. Follow the law or face serious justice

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

NIGEL FARAGE: If you're a criminal, I'm putting you on notice. Follow the law or face serious justice

Britain is lawless. Over the past 20 years, crime has become commonplace across Britain – something Labour and the Tories have accepted rather than challenged. Labour's relentless focus on restricting free speech, raising taxes, and releasing hardened criminals early has come at the direct expense of policing and public safety. We must hold the Conservatives equally accountable, they've been in power throughout this crisis. They introduced the disastrous £200 shoplifting charter, effectively incentivising theft under that threshold and allowing criminals to face no real consequences. They eroded public trust and safety. There's no question: Britain is lawless and it needs Reform. That is why today I am laying out my party's plans for how we take back control of our streets from the criminals who currently plague them. Over the last 20 years, witnessing and experiencing crime has become normalised, with Britons feeling helpless and an overworked police force struggling to keep up. Government funding seems to be going to everything except keeping the people of this country safe on the streets and secure in their homes. Moreover, the Government seems to be doing everything it can to increase the likelihood of crime by importing droves of unvetted men into our towns and cities. Total crime is now 50 per cent higher than it was in the 1990s, and twice as high as in the 1980s. The current figures today are four times greater than they were in the 1970s. Something is fundamentally wrong with both our justice system and the approach towards criminal prosecutions. Our prison system is broken and, in most cases, at full capacity. Violent repeat offenders are being released early and in many cases people do not feel confident that reporting crimes to the police will lead to justice. A recent study has revealed that 44 per cent of violent crimes go unreported and over 64 per cent of robberies and thefts. One of the greatest measures of how a country is faring is the level of trust the public holds with government officials and their ability to keep us safe. From successive Labour and Conservative governments, that trust has been completely lost. By deporting 10,400 foreign prisoners, Reform will end the crisis of prison overcrowding. There's no justification for taxpayers funding the lives of criminals who shouldn't be here in the first place. Many break the law just by entering the UK, then commit further crimes once here – disrespecting our laws, culture, and civility. The only acceptable response is deportation. Reform will commit to the building of five new 'Nightingale' style prisons across the UK. Similar to what Denmark has done, we will negotiate a deal with countries such as Kosovo to ensure prison overcrowding is not a problem that occurs in Britain. For too long, Labour and the Tories have sent the message that crime in Britain carries little to no consequence. Reform will change that. We will ensure that the punishment actually fits the crime – not our current system where people are jailed for tweets while violent criminals walk free after serving a two-year sentence. Reform will build a justice system that properly investigates and prosecutes all crimes. Britain will no longer send the message that robbery, theft, and antisocial behaviour are acceptable. I will ensure any crime, big or small, will be investigated and perpetrators will face justice. Under a Reform government, we will have full-tariff sentences. Life will mean life if I am your prime minister. There will be no early release and no suspended sentences for serious violent offenders, sexual offenders and knife possession. We will end the £200 shoplifters' charter – all shoplifters will face arrest. We will also introduce mandatory life imprisonment for drug trafficking. Reform UK will be the toughest party on law and order this country has ever seen. We will cut crime in half. We will take back control of our streets, we will take back control of our courts and prisons. If you're a criminal, I am putting you on notice. In 2029 you have a choice to make: be a law-abiding citizen or face serious justice.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store