Louise Kam: Two men guilty of murdering businesswoman in £4.6m property fraud

Two men have been found guilty of 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.

Det Ch Insp Brian Howie, of the Met Police, said it was "despicable, callous crime" driven by greed.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow KC told the court text messages apparently sent by Ms Kam to her friends in July 2021 did not sound like she had written them.

"Little did those closest to her realise that when they were replying to those messages, Louise Kam was already dead," the prosecutor said.

"She had been strangled, her body dumped unceremoniously in a rubbish bin, and a plan was afoot to conceal her murder and plunder her life savings."

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

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

The second defendant, Romanian national 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 Mr Al-Jundi and that she could use the money to pay off a mortgage and purchase a property for her children.

The deception reached its conclusion on 26 July 2021 when she arrived at her house in Barnet expecting to finalise the sale of the property.

She was with the two defendants for about 20 minutes, but while both defendants were seen leaving the address she never reappeared.

Ms Kam's best friend, Kambiz Rohany, spoke of his grief following her death, saying in a witness statement his "life without Louise doesn't have any meaning".

He said: "Louise loved and cared for so many, so many. Her disabled eldest son has been left without a loving mother. So many miss her too.

"Time doesn't heal. Now and for the rest of our lives, I and all that loved her, will live knowing of the brutality she suffered, to her last breath, the disregard of her remains, where no pity or mercy was had.

"May my Louise rest in peace. I cannot find words that will express the grief I bear. My life without Louise doesn't have any meaning. I will end my days as a lonely and broken man."

Judge Mark Lucraft said to the defendants: "You have been convicted of the most brutal brutal murder of Louise Kam. Not just satisfied with trying to defraud her of large sums of money you left her in the rubbish to be taken away."

Both defendants wept as the verdicts were returned.

Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk