Illegal Kurdish migrant accused of swindling £32,549 in London
An illegal Turkish Kurd in UK is accused of fraud, a charge he denies.
LONDON, United Kingdom (Kurdistan 24) - An illegal Kurdish migrant in the UK was accused of earning significant profit from a fraudulent scheme on Tuesday but he denies the charges.
Alawi Kurd from Turkey, 49, collected a large sum of money for more than six years after he entered the UK in August 2002 in the back of a truck, jurors heard.
Kerim Koroglu, married and father of three, one of whom was born in England, was accused of having used fake identity and hackneyed Council to have earned £32,549.
According to Prosecutor Will Martin, Koroglu was denied asylum upon arrival and was not able to claim profit because of his immigration status.
Allegedly his claiming profit in housing between 19 May 2006 and 21 October 2012 was done through misleading the Council.
Koroglu who said his life was in danger in Turkey for his ethnicity and religion denies the charges.
"I am a Muslim, I am also Kurdish and I learned to speak Turkish later on in my life," he said.
"We were forced to learn Turkish, I can even say we learned Turkish by getting beaten up."
"I saw the police officers ahead of me and because of my psychology of police officers in Turkey, I ran away," he said.