Louise Kam: Two jailed for life over £4.6m property fraud murder

Two men have been given life sentences for strangling a businesswoman after a £4.6m plan to "plunder" her property went wrong.

Louise Kam, 71, disappeared in July 2021 and was later found dumped in a rubbish bin.

Kusai Al-Jundi, 25, of Harrow, London, and Romanian national Mohamed El-Abboud, 28, were convicted of murder on 19 January.

Both were sentenced to life with a minimum term of 35 years.

The plan was "hatched" by Al-Jundi who worked as a chef at a restaurant in Willesden, north-west London.

He had spent months befriending Ms Kam, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and trying to deceive her into giving him control of two properties she owned in Willesden and East Barnet.

'Cynical deception'

He also wanted her to sign over control of her finances to him.

Judge Mark Lucraft said Al-Jundi had told Ms Kam "lie after lie" in a "cynical deception" to defraud her.

The second defendant, El-Abboud, who worked as a delivery driver at the same restaurant, moved into one of her houses at Gallants Farm Road, East Barnet, and began to treat her property as his own, the court heard.

Ms Kam believed she had been offered millions of pounds for the properties by Al-Jundi and that she could use the money to pay off a mortgage and purchase a property for her children.

Judge Lucraft said El-Abboud had posted videos on social media in which he had mocked the wealth of Ms Kam.

After the pair were found guilty in January, Det Ch Insp Brian Howie, of the Met Police, said it was a "despicable, callous crime" driven by greed.

The judge told the court how Al-Jundi had been described as a "Walter Mitty" character who falsely claimed to be a "person of means" with the backing of a multi-millionaire girlfriend when he set about tricking Ms Kam out of her property.

Having resolved to murder her to get hold of her assets, he promised El-Abboud a share "as a reward for killing her", the judge said. 

He told the pair: "You did what you did out of greed."

In a victim impact statement, Ms Kam's son Gregory Kam said the family had been left in a state of "disbelief" at what had happened to his mother.

He said: "I deeply regret I was not able to do enough at the time to prevent my mother from falling for the lies of his wolf in sheep's clothing.

"In addition to the initial shocking news of our mother's disappearance and subsequent news of her murder, I was not only shocked but further angered and sickened to discover defendant one [Al-Jundi] enlisted the help of an accomplice to trick, entrap, overpower and murder a pension-age woman in her own home under the guise of what was supposed to be a business deal."

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