Farah Damji

Who is Farah Damji?

Farah Damji is an author, former editor and publisher. Prior to coming into the media spotlight in 2005, for criminal acts, she wrote for mainstream and ethnic media including The Observer and The New Statesman and had a regular column in The Birmingham Post. She is the daughter of property tycoon Amir Damji, who lives in South Africa and in London; she has two children.

Damji ran an art gallery in Manhattan and East Hampton from 1992 - 1995 which showed the early works of Jeremy Deller and famed photo-collagist, Peter Beard. In October 1995 she was sentenced to six months in Rikers Island prison for five counts of Grand Larceny, possession of a forged instrument and altering official records. She was also given four years' probation and ordered to pay back $72,000 to her major victims.

Damji returned from the United States to the United Kingdom and became the publisher and editor of the lifestyle magazine Another Generation before it folded.

On 13 October 2005 Damji was jailed in the UK for three and a half years after pleading guilty to thefts totalling £50,000 and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

She was released from Downview Prison in Surrey on July 22, 2006 to attend a meeting with her Open University tutor, but did not return as required that same day. She was re-arrested by police five days later, on July 27. Damji was again arrested in October 2008 on further fraud charges. She pleaded guilty to £17,000 of benefits fraud in July 2009 at Blackfriars Crown Court.