Briton jailed over 9/11 fund cash

A British man was jailed after trying to defraud a fund set up to help people affected by the September 11 terror attacks, authorities said today.

Allen Klein, 30, will be deported after serving his six-month sentence for taking €9,663.85 to help him “recover” from the fall-out of the atrocity.

He told New York officials that he lived on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, parts of which were devastated when the twin towers were destroyed by terrorist.

But, in reality, he had moved to Florida and pocketed the cash.

Police arrested Klein last July after he collected a cheque.

He was convicted of theft and mail fraud in September and sentenced to six months in prison by a federal court, law-enforcement officials said.

United States District Judge Richard Conway Casey also directed the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin the process for deporting Klein.

Authorities were unable to say when Klein last lived in Britain or where he was from.

The fund that Klein defrauded was set up by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which was established to regenerate the downtown area after September 11.

People were able to apply for money if they could show the attacks had affected their daily lives, or left them out of pocket.

Many people were forced out of their homes and into hotels in the wake of the atrocity.