by A Black Lives Matter activist who helped organize the protest that led to the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue has been ordered to repay £1 despite defrauding the charity of thousands.
Xahra Saleem was jailed for two-and-a-half years last year after pleading guilty to one count of fraud when £32,000 in charity donations went missing.
Another charge was left on file at the CPS and now for the first time the total amount of money she is believed to have taken and spent of around £70,000 has been entered.
Police have now obtained a Confiscation Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act against Saleem, but because the 23-year-old spent all the money she stole in less than a year on Ubers, beauty treatments, clothes , takeaway food deliveries and phones, police. they had to get the order for a nominal sum of £1, leaving it possible to increase that amount if or when Saleem has money in the future.
People around the world pledged the money in a series of online fundraisers set up by Saleem – then known as Yvonne Maina – before and after the Black Lives Matter march in Bristol in June 2020.
But instead of going to the good causes that people donated to, she squandered the money in less than a year on a wide range of expenses and living expenses, living a comfortable life of shopping, beauty treatments, taxis and food deliveries.
Saleem pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud last year, and the court heard that around £32,000 went missing from the first online fundraiser she set up.
Saleem was one of five youths who organized the Black Lives Matter march on June 7, 2020 in which Colston’s statue was toppled.
Before the march she had set up an online fundraiser to help pay for Covid mitigation measures and other organizing costs.
When that fundraiser was set up, anyone who donated was told that if there was anything left over after the march, it would be donated to a local St. Paul-based youth organization called Changing Your Mindset, which was run by group of mothers.
The fundraiser received a large number of donations after the march which raised more than £32,000, all of which was supposed to be handed over to Changing Your Mindset.
For months, they talked about the best way to spend it, and decided to take young people on a trip of a lifetime to Africa.
In the days following the protest, Saleem set up a second online fundraiser that she said would be used to fund the legal costs of anyone arrested or charged in connection with the toppling of the statues.
That raised thousands of pounds that are also understood to have gone missing and not reached those caught.
Six people received police cautions for their part in the cutting down of Colston’s statue, while four others pleaded “not guilty”, went through a lengthy legal process and were eventually acquitted of criminal damage. Other organizations held their own fundraisers for the so-called Colston 4 separately.
Now, police say Saleem could have taken and spent up to £70,000 from the two fundraisers.
The police and the courts can issue Confiscation Orders to criminals who have profited from their crimes which will contain a specific sum which the police know the criminal will be able to pay if they sell their assets.
No assets
But the order for Saleem is for a nominal sum of £1 as she has none of the money left or any assets of her own that could contribute to it.
“Xahra Saleem admitted defrauding a charity of a significant amount of money and received a custodial sentence for it last year,” said Detective Con Anthony Davis.
“She made the conscious decision to take the money for herself, when it should have gone to young people in east Bristol.
“Faultless individuals who supported the charity were left to pick up the pieces after this serious fraud.
“They have been put in a very difficult position trying to answer questions about Saleem’s conviction when they have done nothing wrong and are devastated by what happened.
“In total it was calculated that Saleem benefited by approximately £70,000.
“No one should profit from crime and that is why we have taken proactive action under the Proceeds of Crime Act,” he said.
The young people who were part of the Changing Your Mindset group said last year that they thought Saleem should have been jailed for longer than the two and a half years she got.
The group has now been disbanded – mainly due to the stress these parents face from dealing with the aftermath of the missing money.
Its founders said they had given up hope that they would get any money at all, or that the donors – one of whom donated a five-figure sum – would get their money back.
“Saleem was instructed at Bristol Crown Court today to pay a nominal amount after due consideration of the assets available to her,” explained the Auditor and Auditor.
“If she were to receive assets in the future, we would have the opportunity to seek a confiscation order through the courts through Section 22 of the Proceeds of Crime Act,” he said.
