An alleged “romance scammer” is facing accusations of grooming a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor while he was in his forties, for financial gain — and was banned from a nursing home when staff became worried he was preying on elderly residents.
A previous JC investigation unearthed accusations that Yaacov Mizrahi, 54, had “coerced” a 72-year-old widow with learning difficulties into marriage and transferred more than £500,000 of her money into his accounts.
Now others have since come forward with separate claims involving other victims.
One woman has contacted the newspaper to say she reported Mr Mizrahi to the police about 10 years ago after she grew concerned about her elderly neighbour, a Holocaust survivor, who lived in Hodford Road in Golders Green.
She said: “I was a neighbour to an elderly German woman.
“We were aware of what’s going on, he completely took over her life.”
She claimed the 94-year-old had become involved in a close relationship with Mr Mizrahi who was “significantly younger” than her and one day she “overheard shouting over a power of attorney agreement that they discussed in the garden.
“We went round there and tried to talk to her but she threw us out of her house… she said they were in love. She had no immediate family.”
Mr Mizrahi confirmed to the JC he had known the elderly woman.
He said: “I met [her] through my old landlord. I used to help her take her son out who was severely disabled. Just before she died she asked that I become a trustee to her estate.”
He claimed hat the lady had gone to see “a solicitor and a doctor” before she appointed him as a trustee. After her death, he added, he continued to rent the house out and when it was eventually sold to pay for her disabled son’s care, “we deducted money for the refurbishment that I did to the house”.
He denied the claim they had a romantic relationship.
The elderly lady later passed away, within just a few months of meeting Mr Mizrahi.
The JC can also reveal that Mr Mizrahi was banned from a Jewish residential home, Sage, in Golders Green in 2010.
According to documents collected in 2019 by a private investigator working for the family of Daphne Worledge, the 72-year-old widow allegedly coerced into marrying Mr Mizrahi, the ban was introduced after staff grew concerned about his relationships with elderly clients.
The documents also contain the allegation by care home staff that Mr Mizrahi convinced one of their clients, Kelman Yurman, to sell him his property below market value before he died.
Staff reported Mr Mizrahi to the police at the time for what they believed were his attempts to defraud Mr Yurman, although no charges were ever brought.
They said that around 2010, Mr Yurman was a respite patient at Sage, following an operation.
After he left Sage, he kept in touch with staff and “on one occasion, Mr Yurman stated that he had met a young man, Mizrahi, who had been ‘looking after him and entertaining him’”.
Mr Yurman told Sage staff that he had sold his house to Mr Mizrahi for £830,000, although staff thought that his home was worth around £1,000,000 at the time.
Mr Mizrahi confirmed to the JC that he had been banned by the care home and had been investigated by the police in relation to complaints by Sage staff but claimed it was because “the matron wanted her son-in-law to buy Mr Yurman’s house”.
He said that Mr Yurman had approached him in Warman-Freed Pharmacy in Golders Green with a valuation letter from a respected local estate agent and asked Mr Mizrahi to buy his house.
“I paid £830,000 for it and it was only worth £800,000,” he said.
Mr Mizrahi denied the claim that it was undervalued.
A police error meant that a criminal case against Mr Mizrahi over his involvement with Ms Worledge collapsed two days before the trial was due to commence in March this year, prompting the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to apologise.
Following the failure to put Mr Mizrahi in the dock — despite the CPS admitting there was enough evidence for a prosecution — the family of Mrs Worledge spoke out, for fear that he would prey on other vulnerable women.
Mr Mizrahi said that he “borrowed” £90,000 from another woman in Golders Green to pay legal costs incurred in arguing with Ms Worledge’s family solicitors over money she had given him.
The JC understands that the woman in question believed she was in a romantic relationship with Mr Mizrahi at the time.
The family of the individual became increasingly concerned and “fought hard” to get the money back.
Mr Mizrahi did not deny the claims, saying: “I was the biggest property developer in north London.
“I didn’t borrow from banks, I borrowed from individuals and gave them charges against property I own.”
The relatives of another family told the JC that they believed their vulnerable relative had fallen foul of Mr Mizrahi in similar circumstances to Mrs Worledge.
Mr Mizrahi confirmed to the JC he was aware of the family in question and claimed they “had an axe to grind” because they had fallen out with the relative in question.
Mike Freer, MP for Golders Green, has written to Met Commissioner Cressida Dick to request that Mr Mizrahi’s case be reviewed “urgently” and “at the highest level”.
He asked the Metropolitan Police “to provide clarity about what steps, if any, they are taking to respond to allegations that Yaacov Mizrahi and his associates continue to pose a possible threat to others in my constituency and beyond”.
He also wrote to the family of Mrs Worledge to thank them for providing him with detailed background information.
“It is deeply alarming to read the detailed letter from the CPS, setting out the range of failings that appear to have taken place and prevented justice from being done for Mrs Worledge, and you, her relatives,” he wrote.
“While it is not clear what the outcome of that trial would have been if it had gone ahead, I am in no doubt about the distress your family must have experienced when you were advised that this case could not proceed to trial.
“Not least because of the way this had been communicated to you by the CPS.”
Mr Mizrahi told the JC that he now lives in Israel.
