Black Lives Matter fraudster is ordered to pay back just £1

A fraudster who organised the Black Lives Matter protests that toppled the Colston statue stole £70,000 - but has been ordered to pay back just £1.

Xahra Saleem, 23, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after admitting to spending over £44,000 on 'lifestyle' expenses including £5,800 on Ubers, as well as beauty treatments, clothes, takeway deliveries and mobile phones.

But with Saleem having spent all of the stolen money, police have had to obtain the order with a nominal £1 sum, which then allows that amount to increase if or whenever she has the money in the future.

The funds were intended to go towards Changing Your Mindset, a Bristol St Pauls-based youth group, but were never received.

Bristol Crown Court heard previously that Saleem received an initial payment of £30,653. This came after a total of 588 individual donations had been made from around the world to the GoFundMe page, totalling £32,344.

But in a proceeds of crime act hearing, a court heard on Friday, April 5 that Saleem was now penniless - and despite benefiting by an estimated £70k - she would only have to pay back only £1.

In a statement released after the hearing, Jay Daley and Deneisha Royal from the youth group Changing Your Mindset said they continued to feel let down.