Woken by police to be told that his car had been damaged, Ufuoma Odoh wasn’t prepared for the scene that confronted him.
The Volvo XC40, parked on the street around the corner from his London flat, was missing its rear windscreen – smashed by a television hurled out of the window of a nearby hotel room.
In the past, such loutish antics were the preserve of rich, drug-addled rock stars. Today, it’s just part of the day-to-day reality of living alongside one of the many hotels now given over to asylum seekers.
Because, as 49-year-old Mr Odoh discovered, the free board and lodging laid on courtesy of the British taxpayer is absolutely no guarantee of good behaviour.
‘At first, police searched the first two floors of the hotel, discovered no TVs were missing, and closed the case,’ the council worker explained of the incident last month.
‘Then the manager found a TV missing on the fourth floor and called the police, who arrested the person who did it. They took him to the police station and questioned him, but they claimed there was not enough proof as nobody had seen him throw the TV out of the window. I said, “But the manager told you he did it. Is that not enough?” They insisted it wasn’t.’
When Mr Odoh complained to the Home Office about what had happened, he was told that he should take the matter up with his insurers. Rather than make a claim and push up his premiums, he has now shelled out £750 of his own money to make good the damage.
And Mr Odoh is far from alone in counting the cost – financial, emotional and more – of living next to migrant lodgings.
Last weekend, The Mail on Sunday revealed the shocking scale of serious crime committed by asylum seekers living in hotels in communities across Britain.
An audit of court records found that of occupants at 70 hotels – just a third of those used – a remarkable 312 had been charged with 708 criminal offences.
Most shocking of all was the finding that one hotel alone – the three-star Thistle City Barbican in London – had seen 41 migrants listed at the address charged with more than 90 offences in the past year alone. Today, a closer analysis of those crimes paints a worrying picture of the real-life impact of placing asylum seekers – including those who have crossed the Channel in small boats – in the heart of towns and cities.
Charges brought include rape, arson, sexual assault, affray, actual bodily harm, strangulation, robbery, theft and shoplifting. Knife crime and drink and drug offences are commonplace, as are attacks on police officers going about their duties. Those accused of the crimes are all men, with the vast majority aged in their 20s and 30s. Many of those convicted are dealt with by means of suspended or community sentences. In a number of cases warrants have been issued for arrest after defendants failed to attend court hearings.
Financial penalties and costs were also often waived because the defendants were found to have ‘no means’. Given that the London hotel has recently also been identified as a hub for illegal working, some will regard that as a particular irony.
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