An asylum seeker jailed for life today (Thurs) for

An asylum seeker jailed for life today (Thurs) for hacking one of his fraud gang to death was pumping thousands of pounds a week into Sri Lankan terrorism.

Ruben Thanavalisingham, 19, butchered Manokumar Kumar, 31, with an axe after they rowed over the huge profits from their credit card scam.

The killer believed Kumar was challenging his position as gang leader and he left his victim to bleed to death from horrendous injuries.

The money made from the scam has never been traced and police believe Thanavalisingham was handing over the cash to the ruthless Tamil Tigers.

According to his barristers, Thanavalisingham faces certain death if he is returned to Sri Lanka, but Judge Anne Goddard, QC, ordered his deportation at the end of his sentence.

‘This was a brutal murder committed against a background of substantial dishonesty,’ the judge said.

The court heard how Mr Kumar’s right arm was virtually severed away in the attack in his north London home.

John Bevan, QC, prosecuting, told the court: ‘It was, we suggest, a falling out over the profits of a profitable scheme that appears to provide the motive in this case for murder.

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A month before the killing, incensed Ruben went to a takeaway food store in Hartford Road, Edmonton hunting for Kumar, said the QC.

Ruben told a friend who worked at the shop he would ‘cut’ the victim and was caught on CCTV as he pulled an axe from his waistband and placed it on the counter.

On October 30 last year, Ruben found Kumar and punched him in the face, leaving the victim with a bloody nose.

Later that evening Ruben sneaked into Kumar’s home in North Road, Edmonton.

‘Ruben attacked Kumar with an axe hitting him a number of times on the head, chest and neck, having gained entry through an open window,’ Mr Bevan said.

‘Kumar’s body was found the next day.

He died from loss of blood from blows to the right elbow that all but severed his right arm, severing the artery from which he bled to death.

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Ruben fled to the home of another asylum seeker Siluvai Mano, 27, in Barking Road, East Ham where he disposed of most of his bloody clothing and the axe.

The killer was arrested when he returned to a temporary address in Moree Way, Edmonton to collect some immigration papers to help him escape to Europe.

Detectives investigating the murder uncovered a wide-scale fraud and seized stolen credit cards and swiping machines.

One examination of cards used by the gang at a Tesco petrol station in Brent Park, Neasden, showed the gang had swindled goods worth pnds stlg 3,000 in just one evening.

‘They (the gang) were all at it.

Swapping cards among themselves, carrying out bent transaction after bent transaction, making a tidy profit for themselves,’ Mr Bevan said.

‘There was a very profitable credit card fraud going on.

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The gang would either used stolen or forged, known as ‘cloned’ cards.

A single card, stolen from West Lothian, Scotland, in May last year was used 74 times in north London to obtain pnds stlg 3,120.

77 worth of goods.

Ruben, of Moree Way, Edmonton, was convicted by the jury of murdering Mr Kumar between October 29 and November 1 last year.

Mano, of Bridgewater Rd, Alperton, was convicted of doing acts tending to pervert the course of public justice between October 29 and November 9 last year.

Mr Nigel Lambert, QC, defending Ruben said: ‘He feels that he would face certain death if he returns to Sri Lanka.

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Mr Lalith de Kauwe, defending fisherman Siluvai Mano said he became involved in the crime through misplaced loyalty.

‘He is a thoroughly decent man,’ Mr de Kauwe added.

Mano bowed to Judge Goddard and smiled after she jailed him for 18 months and spared him deportation – despite the fact he had been convicted of helping a murderer.

‘You have no record, You are a man of good character.

I think in your case there was an amount of misplaced loyalty,’ the judge said.

Speaking outside court Detective Chief Inspector Steve Kavanagh said: ‘I have information that the credit card fraud was being used to support the Tamil struggle.

‘Ruben is a cynical hardened criminal who felt that his position in a minor criminal organisation was threatened.

‘He decided to deal with it in the way he felt appropriate.

‘His story has been seen through by the jury and we are satisfied that in both cases justice has been done.

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