A family accused of masquerading as Afghans to illegally claim asylum in the UK are living in a £575,000 luxury home in an exclusive Home Counties commuter town having cost the taxpayer £160,000 over the past year, MailOnline revealed.
Gurbakhsh Singh, 72, his wife Ardet Kaur, 68, their son Guljeet Singh, 43, and his wife Kawaljeet Kaur, 37, all appeared on bail at Croydon Magistrates Court earlier this month.
Just before Christmas last year, the Singh Kaurs reportedly claimed to be from the Taliban-led nation when they landed at Heathrow Airport.
But they have been accused of twice having failed to obtain visas to come to Britain as Indian nationals earlier in 2023.
Earlier this month, they made their first court appearance. Both Punjabi and Dari translators were available to them during the hearing.
Until recently they were living at Wembley’s Holiday Inn in north London, which has been fully booked by the Home Office for asylum seekers and is now not accepting any customers.
However, as a requirement of their bail, they have all been ordered to stay at the new house in Hemel Hempstead where they are already living together.
The 1,136 sq ft property, which has four bedrooms, an open plan ground floor and with ‘luxurious’ fitted kitchen with top-end appliances, was put up for sale for £575,000 in March 2023. It was sold in 2022 for £467,000, according to the Land Registry.
It has plush deep-pile carpets, new wooden floors and a 341 sq ft loft room with views of Hertfordshire.
The modern property, within half a mile of excellent schools and close to Hemel Hempstead’s amenities and railway station, also profits from a recently landscaped garden to the rear and two parking spaces.
MailOnline asked the Government to comment on the case – and the expense to the taxpayer of accommodating them in a hotel and now their new property for the past 12 months.
A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that the cost of housing an asylum keeper went from £17,000 per person in 2019/20 to £41,000 in 2023/24.
Based on these figures, the family of four at the centre of the case would cost £ 164,000 a year to house since they arrived a year ago.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘It would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation’.
But added: ‘Where there are concerns of abuse of the asylum system, we ensure that these are thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken.’
These people should be deported, not supported.
Our own homeless people are dying on the streets in the meantime.
It’s the same old thing. While our own are allowed to deteriorate, Keir Starmer must cease granting these individuals preferential treatment.
These people just keep on taking, and our government just keeps on giving but not their own. They should be removed immediately.
These people are fraudsters, and please don’t say racist or human rights. They have committed a crime, end of.
Hundreds of migrants arrive every day, but we can only take so much before we blow.
This is so bad. No wonder this country is on its knees.
Everyone born outside of this nation must go. Now is the moment to rise up because enough is enough. Since this is a problem that will not go away and our Prime Minister and his administration are clueless, I would be more than happy to take a stand as an older woman.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 