A wealthy businessman was left stunned after finding an illegal immigrant cooking in his kitchen — the intruder had been secretly living in his luxury Cornwall home for days.
The father, who wishes not to be named, arrived at his £750k property in St Ives with his family when he came across a smashed window.
After walking through his front door he found 28-year-old intruder Saidahmed-Hamid Ghalem making a meal in his kitchen.
Ghalem’s last address was in London, however, he had been staying in the property for a matter of days.
The West Midlands homeowner rents out his seaside cottage on a luxury holiday let website and said he was “horrified”.
He is now contemplating whether to take proceedings against authorities for failing to deal with illegal immigrants, according to the Daily Mail.
“The person involved was subject to a deportation order so why was he still in the country?” a relative said.
“He was shocked and horrified to find him in his holiday home which he had visited during the half term holidays.”
The illegal immigrant was found in the man’s property in Cornwall
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PAThe family source further said that it was the man’s holiday home.
“He found this man, a stranger, in his kitchen and cooking food, but I am not sure what it was,” they added.
“He had been living there for a quite a few days.”
The man was told to leave the house with the source saying he was spotted begging in a nearby street.
“He was a homeless asylum seeker who had come from London to chance his luck as there are so many vacant properties not occupied at this time of year,” the source further said.
Ghalem recently pleaded guilty to criminal damage and trespass at Truro Magistrates’ Court was ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation, according to the Falmouth Packet.
The source said that Ghalem “hasn’t got the money to pay that back”.
Neighbours said the 50-year-old was so shocked that they went to another property and came back the next day to repair the damage.
The man broke into the home in St Ives
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The owner of a nearby hardware shop Colenso said the homeowner had “told me he’d had a break in and needed to block off a window”.
“It wasn’t until this morning that i heard about the asylum seeker moving in,” Colin Nicholls said.
“It must’ve been awful for them.
“I think they asked the guy to leave and he did but then he tried to come back again a few days later.”
Mr Nicholls said the homeowner decided to go to Falmouth instead of staying there.
“I think he took it in good spirits and was very measured in his approach,” he added.
Mr Nicholls said he believes the man was “quite successful and normally deals in bigger things than this”.
“I’ve seen him before, he’s a really nice guy and comes down every couple of weeks with his wife.”