A fraudster who organised the Black Lives Matter protests and used £70k of donations to fund her lifestyle has been ordered to pay back just £1.
Xahra Saleem, 23, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after admitting to spending over £44k on ‘lifestyle’ expenses including £5,800 on Ubers, as well as beauty treatments, clothes, takeaway deliveries, and mobile phones.
He added: ‘There is remorse. I have no doubt you have remorse now looking back at that period of time.’
In a statement released after the hearing, Jay Daley and Deneisha Royal from the youth group Changing Your Mindset said they continued to feel let down.
They said: ‘It doesn’t feel that justice has been fully served as we are unlikely to get back the money from her. It feels like we are being punished.
It saddens me that a member of our community could do this to us because they knew and understood the goal we set out to achieve in order to positively change our community.
‘For me, the group was a safe place. A refuge that I could relax without concern for my safety.
‘For some members it was an opportunity to cook a meal, collect donations, and receive support for mental health as well as learn about new things such as employment opportunities.
‘If we were to get the money back we would go on the trip and members of the group would reestablish the group and make changes to the community and use time on the trip to plan for this.’