Man pretended to be Grenfell victim then racked up £40,000 bill after council put him up in exclusive London hotel
Serial fraudster Derrick Peters jailed for six years over 'repulsive' lies
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A man has been jailed for six years after he pretended to be a survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire, ran up a £40,000 hotel bill with taxpayers’ money, burgled a nearby flat and then lied to a judge about his victim status to gain a reduced sentence for the break-in.
Derrick Peters was put up in the Park Grand Hotel in Paddington, west London, after he claimed to have lost a friend and all his belongings in last June’s deadly blaze – and Kensington and Chelsea Council continued to pay for his room even while he was on remand in Wandsworth Prison.
His eye-watering bill at the £192-a-night hotel, described on its website as a “four-star luxury boutique hotel”, included more than £5,000 spent on food, drink and laundry out of a total £38,784.
The council continued paying for his room for two months while he was in custody, after he was arrested on 10 August last year. He had stolen jewellery and other items worth some £3,000 from an apartment near the hotel.
Following his sentencing on 16 October for the burglary, for which he was handed a community order, Peters continued to pretend he had been caught up in the Grenfell fire and was even offered a flat meant for genuine victims of the disaster that left 72 people dead.
But the story unravelled when Rebecca Ross, a Grenfell survivor whose father Steve Power perished in the fire, confirmed Peters had not lived with them and their three dogs as he had claimed.
Peters pleaded guilty to perverting the court of justice and two counts of fraud at Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday, and was sentenced to a total of six years in prison yesterday. He was also resentenced for the original burglary charge.
Judge Robin Johnson told Peters he was sure he had been spared jail previously because of his “brazen lie” to the judge in his burglary case.
“It was designed to pull heart strings. It succeeded, just as the similar lies were providing you with hotel accommodation and money,” he said.
“Your conduct from June last year was utterly disgraceful. You cheated and lied for your own ends, trading on others’ misery. There can be little mercy in such a case.”
The judge said Peters’ crimes had reached “such depths as any right-minded member of the public would find repulsive”.
“Not only did you burgle a person’s house, but when caught you latched on to the same idea that had enriched you for weeks,” he continued.
“You advanced bogus mitigation which was designed to, and which did, spare you from condign punishment.
“On hearing your mitigation, the sentencing judge was sufficiently moved to spare you, a person who has a long and unenviable criminal record, from prison.”
The court heard Peters had 40 convictions for 90 offences, including 24 for fraud and 73 for theft.
He is the sixth person to be sentenced for fraud relating to the Grenfell fire and received the longest prison term yet.
Peters received a sentence of three years and four months for two counts of fraud, 20 months for perverting the course of justice, and 12 months for burglary, to be served consecutively, the Metropolitan Police said.
In a statement read in court, Edward Daffarn, a member of the Grenfell United survivors group, said he was left “sickened” by what Peters had done.
“It is upsetting beyond words to learn the tragedy of Grenfell Tower is being used by individuals so that they can exploit our misery for their own gain,” he said.
“It is pouring salt on the wounds of the bereaved and ex-tower residents to know that the deaths and trauma we have had to endure is seen simply as an opportunity for others to profit and exploit.”
Corrinne Jones described escaping from the tower’s 17th floor with her two young children as “one of the most horrific things that I have experienced”.
“I find people lying about living in a building where a considerable amount of people died as disrespectful and distasteful,” she said in a statement.
The judge told Peters: “The facts of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy are well known. The effect on those who died, their families and friends, cannot be imagined by those who were not directly affected.
“Members of the public, indeed the nation, were shocked by the dreadful event.
“The fact that the unscrupulous sought to enrich themselves with accommodation, room service and money is the more shocking in the light of the outpouring of grief and sympathy that followed the disaster.”
The Independent has contacted Kensington and Chelsea Council for comment.
Additional reporting by PA