Zim woman jailed in £100k UK bedsit scam
LONDON- A Zimbabwean asylum seeker was jailed for four years by the Croydon Crown Court in the UK after being convicted of 11 counts of fraud. Thirty-two year old Rose Chimuka ran an elaborate house-letting scam which made her £100,000.
According to a report by British tabloid The Sun “Chimuka took leases on family homes and then illegally sub-divided them into bedsits. She let them out to unsuspecting tenants and pocketed rent — ripping off the real landlords by giving them nothing.”
It’s further reported that Chimuka packed up to 15 people into each house in what police called an “elaborate fraud”. To make matters worse “when she was rumbled by the real owners she just disappeared and started again elsewhere,” the paper reported.
“Chimuka used fake ID and pretended she was a respectable mother with a well-paid husband to take leases on homes across South East London. Once she got possession of each she changed all the locks and put beds in every room.
“The owner of one house in Brockley found it crammed with tenants who thought Chimuka was the genuine landlady. And another home owner was cheekily reported to cops by Chimuka when he tried to get in,” The Sun newspaper reported.
Houses were left filthy, smelly and with appliances stolen. Owners lost up to £86,000 each in rent and the cost of repairs. Chimuka is set to be deported after she completes her four year sentence.
