... and like a pirate, he has made off with a fortune in British pounds. But he's no seafarer. He is a desert despot who has taken great advantage of UK hospitality and weak laws. He is Abu Hamza, of the now infamous Finsbury Park mosque.

Legal aid chiefs are seeking to recover court defence costs from Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri amid reports that he bought a £220,000 house while in jail.
Recovery hearings have been held after an investigation into the cleric by the Legal Services Commission (LSC).

The Evening Standard has reported that he purchased the property in Greenford, west London, in October 2004.

Abu Hamza al-Masri was jailed for seven years in February for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

The newspaper said he bought the four-bedroom semi-detached house despite his assets being frozen by the Treasury under anti-terrorism measures.

The legal aid costs were in the region of £250,000, it added.

Quite possibly one of the most evil men alive (most of whom are Muslim, by the way... a coincidence I'm sure), Abu Hamza was jailed for inciting racial hatred as he raged from the pulpit of his popular London mosque. I was living in the UK at the time, and my tax money went to pay for his legal aid. And his lovely home, apparently.

He was jailed for seven years for the six charges of soliciting murder, 21 months for the three incitement to racial hatred charges, three years for possessing "threatening, abusive or insulting recordings" and three-and-a- half years for having a document useful to terrorists.

Oh, and I also helped fund his pedicures. I guess you could say I'm glad I'm no longer living and paying taxes in the UK. But if I was, it would be very hard for me not to walk right up to the door of his ill-gotten house and take it over. It's more mine than it is his.