Jurors convict two men of first-degree murder in shooting death near Delray Beach

 

A jury convicted two men of first-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the 2007 shooting death of John Blazevige, whose body was found outside his still idling pick-up truck near Delray Beach. It took three days for jurors to return the verdicts against Michael Marquardt and Louis Baccari at the end of the week-long trial. At times they seemed entrenched into two separate camps, but in the end they made the unanimous decision to return the convictions on murder and armed robbery for each man. "We were surprised, and disappointed," Baccari's defense attorney Andrew Strecker said. "We thought for sure it would have been a hung jury." More puzzling, Strecker said, were the jury's findings in their verdict. For example, they found that Baccari, the alleged triggerman, had not used a firearm during the robbery of Blazevige, but they convicted him of armed robbery anyhow. Prosecutors Sherri Collins and Aaron Papero built their case largely on the testimony of Antonio Bussey, who deputies originally said was responsible for the killing. His DNA was found on the murder weapon, but he told deputies that Marquardt had made him touch the gun after Baccari shot Blazevige during a bad drug deal, telling him that they were "all in it together." Bussey made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 21-year sentence. Hours before they returned the verdicts Tuesday, jurors asked to hear Bussey's testimony again. Baccari's and Marquardt's attorneys Strecker and Scott Skier asked Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath to also allow jurors to hear their entire cross examinations of Bussey, but the judge ruled that jurors only needed to hear a small portion of it. Colbath also denied defense attorneys' subsequent requests for a mistrial. Baccari's relatives outside the courtroom described him as a warm-hearted person and said they were convinced there was no way he would ever harm Blazevige, who had been his longtime friend and formerly lived in West Palm Beach. Prosecutors had said that Blazevige was addicted to prescription drugs and had met Baccari, Marquardt and Bussey to buy pills when he was killed. But defense attorneys, along with Baccari's family, say Bussey made a deal with prosecutors even though he knew he was the one who killed Blazevige in order to avoid the life sentences both Baccari and Marquardt will now inevitably receive as result of their convictions. Colbath set sentencing for Marquart, a landscape company owner who lived in Boynton Beach, and Baccari for April 2.

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Scotland Yard lent police horse to Rebekah Brooks

 

The former Sun and News of the World editor was lent the horse in 2008, the year after Clive Goodman, who worked for her as royal editor of the News of the World, was jailed for phone-hacking along withe the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch visited Mrs Brooks's home in the Cotswolds to check she had suitable facilities and was a competent rider before the horse went there. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police pointed out that it is routine for retired Mounted Branch horses to be lent out to members of the public at the end of their working lives, but the arrangement is likely to raise fresh questions about the Met's relationship with Mrs Brooks. The news comes a day after the Leveson Inquiry was told that Mrs Brooks was briefed by a senior Met officer on the progress of the original phone-hacking inquiry and even consulted on how far she thought the investigation should go. Mrs Brooks, who is married to the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, kept the horse at her home in the Cotswolds for two years before giving it back to the Metropolitan Police in 2010.  It was then found a new home in Norfolk with a serving police officer. Dave Wilson, Mrs Brooks's spokesman, said: "It's well known by people in the horse world that the Met looks for homes for horses once they retire. Rebekah took on a horse and effectively acted as a foster parent for it for a year or so. "The Met horse team comes out to make sure your facilities are right and proper. It's just a way of giving a temporary home to a horse that has had a distinguished service in the Met. It went off to a retirement paddock in Norfolk once it couldn't be ridden any more." At the time Mrs Brooks took on the horse, she was editor of The Sun, but had given evidence to a committee of MPs five years earlier admitting that the News of the World had paid policemen when she was editor of the Sunday paper between 2000 and 2003. By the time she gave the horse back to the Met she was chief executive of News International and the Met was facing calls to re-open its investigation into phone hacking following the disclosure that thousands of names of potential victims appeared in Mulcaire's notebooks. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "When a police horse reaches the end of its working life, Mounted Branch officers find it a suitable retirement home. Whilst responsibility for feeding the animal and paying vet bills passes to the person entrusted to its care at its new home, the horse remains the property of the Metropolitan Police Service. "Retired police horses are not sold on and can be returned to the care of the MPS at any time. In 2008 a retired MPS horse was loaned to Rebekah Brooks. The horse was subsequently re-housed with a police officer in 2010." The Metropolitan Police website states that: "At the end of the police horse's working life the animal is re-homed at one of many identified establishments who have previously contacted the Mounted Branch with a view to offering a home. "The Mounted Branch is looking for suitable homes for retired horses, that is homes where the horse will not be ridden. Anyone in the southeast of England offering such a home will be considered first."

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Bank tax dodges halted by retrospective law

 

A bank in the UK has been forced to pay more than half a billion pounds in tax which it had dodged by using "highly abusive" tax avoidance schemes. One tax dodge involved the bank claiming it should not have to pay corporation tax on profits made when buying back its own IOUs. The government said it would change the law retrospectively and immediately to stop anyone else using the scheme. The identity of the bank has so far not been revealed. Announcing the crackdown, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said the bank should never have devised the schemes in the first place. "The bank that disclosed these schemes to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has adopted the Banking Code of Practice on Taxation which contains a commitment not to engage in tax avoidance," he said. "The government is clear that these are not transactions that a bank that has adopted the code should be undertaking. "We do not take today's action lightly, but the potential tax loss from this scheme and the history of previous abuse in this area mean that this is a circumstance where the decision to change the law with full retrospective effect is justified," he added. The second tax avoidance scheme, designed by the same bank, involved investment funds claiming that non-taxable income entitled the funds to tax credits that could be reclaimed from HMRC. The Treasury described this as "an attempt to secure 'repayment' from the Exchequer of tax that has not been paid". Compulsory notification A Treasury source suggested that outlawing the tax dodges immediately would save the government a further £2bn in tax that would otherwise have been foregone. The bank in question in fact disclosed the two schemes to the tax authorities under rules which have been in place since 2004. Anyone, such as a bank, accountant, lawyer or tax adviser, who devises a seemingly legal tax avoidance plan, is obliged to tell the tax authorities about it within a few days of using it or marketing it to clients. More than 2,000 schemes have been disclosed in the past eight years. "Quite a few of the disclosures have come from banks in the past," said John Whiting, of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). "They are usually intended to sell to others such as clients." New code The banking code on taxation was first introduced by the Labour government in June 2009. It followed reports that some big banks used large scale tax avoidance schemes involving complex transactions and financial instruments. The code - which was supported by the incoming coalition government the following year - demands that banks which sign ensure that their tax and the tax obligations of their customers are observed. It says they should not go out of their way to avoid tax for themselves or clients. The 15 biggest banks operating in the UK have signed up. 'Treated even-handedly' In a separate development, HMRC said it would appoint a senior official to act as an "assurance commissioner" for any tax deals struck with big companies for more than £100m. The job of the commissioner will be to make sure taxpayers in general do not suffer from any such settlements. The move follows severe criticism last December from MPs on the public accounts committee who denounced HMRC for appearing to cut contentious tax deals with companies such as Vodafone and Goldman Sachs. Lin Homer, the new HMRC chief executive said: "This commissioner will take the role of challenging whether any proposed settlement secured the correct amount of tax efficiently and that taxpayers had been treated even-handedly." "The commissioner will also make sure that the governance procedures have been followed," she added.

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The daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government.

A day after presiding over the publication of his new, damn-the-critics Sun on Sunday tabloid, Rupert Murdoch was confronted with fresh allegations from a top police investigator that the daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Readers’ Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (130) » The allegations, part of a deepening criminal probe into The Sun and Mr. Murdoch’s defunct News of the World, highlight the challenges to Mr. Murdoch and his News Corporation as he seeks to minimize the threat to his British media holdings. They also cast a harsh spotlight on the freewheeling pay-for-information culture of the British media. In public testimony on Monday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading the criminal investigation into Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, said The Sun, long a source of special pride and attention for Mr. Murdoch, had illegally paid the unidentified officials hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for news tips and “salacious gossip.” She said the payments had been authorized “at a very senior level within the newspaper.” Her comments, unusual during a continuing criminal inquiry, directly undercut Mr. Murdoch’s campaign of support for the embattled newspaper. On Feb. 17, the 80-year-old Mr. Murdoch made a grand entrance into the Sun newsroom, where, marching around in shirtsleeves, he vowed to reinstate journalists suspended in the criminal investigation, offered to pay their legal bills, issued a robust statement about the paper’s probity and announced that he was defying conventional industry wisdom by starting a Sunday issue. Ms. Akers said illegal activities had been rife at the paper. “There appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money,” she told the Leveson Inquiry on media ethics and practices, led by Lord Justice Leveson. The payments involved “frequent and sometimes significant sums of money” to public officials, she said. In a statement, Mr. Murdoch said that “the practices Sue Akers described at the Leveson Inquiry are ones of the past, and no longer exist at The Sun.” He remained publicly bullish, helping promote the new Sun on Sunday in newspaper stores and announcing on Twitter that it had sold 3.26 million copies. In another blow to Mr. Murdoch, related this time to The News of the World, a lawyer for the Leveson Inquiry said Rebekah Brooks, a former Murdoch executive, was apparently informed by the police in 2006 that detectives had evidence that the cellphones of dozens of celebrities, politicians and sports figures had been illegally hacked by an investigator working for the newspaper. The disclosure, contained in a September 2006 e-mail from a company lawyer to the editor of The News of the World, Andy Coulson, is highly significant. Until late in 2010, Mrs. Brooks, Mr. Coulson and other officials at News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corporation, repeatedly asserted that the hacking had been limited to a single “rogue reporter” — the paper’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman. The assertion was rendered implausible, at best, by the fact that the police had information that so many hacking victims existed, and that so few of them had anything to do with the royal family. Monday’s disclosures could not have come at a more inopportune time for Mr. Murdoch. In recent weeks, morale at The Sun hit a low point after a number of senior editors and reporters were arrested on suspicion of illegally paying sources. At the same time, journalists at The Sun and elsewhere released a stream of angry attacks at the police, saying the investigation had gone too far and was targeting reporters for what they said was normal behavior in the British tabloid press like taking sources out to lunch or paying whistle-blowers. “The Sun journalists who have been arrested are not accused of enriching themselves — they were simply researching stories about scandals at hospitals, scandals at army bases and scandals in police stations that they believed their readers were entitled to know about,” Kelvin Mackenzie, a former editor of The Sun, wrote in The Daily Mail. “If the whistle-blower asks for money, so what?” The Metropolitan Police Service’s highly unusual decision to release specific details of a continuing investigation seemed designed to rebut such criticism. “The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials,” Ms. Akers said. “Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists.”

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Putin assassination plot foiled: Russian officials

 

Ukrainian security services have thwarted a plot to kill Russian PM Vladimir Putin, Russian officials say. Two suspects were detained in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, Russia's state-owned Channel One TV reports. The arrested men were both shown on TV admitting their involvement in the plot, after an explosion at a flat in January in which one suspect died. Ukrainian security officials have refused to confirm the arrests were part of a plot to assassinate Mr Putin. But the Russian prime minister's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the BBC that the report was correct: "this was absolutely a plot to kill the prime minister." The attack was to happen after next Sunday's presidential vote, the report said. Mr Putin is expected to win the election and get a third term as president. The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow said the two men were both shown on Russian TV, one being interrogated and the other giving an interview. Continue reading the main story Analysis Daniel Sandford BBC News, Moscow The Ukrainian security services have told the BBC that they did arrest some people in January after an apartment explosion. But when we asked them if it was part of a plot to assassinate Mr Putin, spokeswoman Maryna Ostapenko said she did not know what to say. She would not go on the record to confirm that this was part of a plot to kill Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. So it goes back only to the very detailed Russian Channel One report which even interviewed one of the suspects. But at this stage the Ukrainian authorities do not confirm that these men are being held in any way in connection with an assassination plot. In the footage, both admit plotting to attack Mr Putin. One, identified by Ria Novosti as Ilya Pyanzin, said he had been hired by Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov to carry out the killing and also by Ruslan Madayev, the suspect who died in the Odessa explosion. The other suspect was named by Channel One as Adam Osmayev, said to have been on an international wanted list since 2007. The plotters were planning to plant mines on Kutuzovsky Avenue in Moscow, used by Mr Putin on a daily basis, the report said. Russian media report that Mr Pyanzin was arrested in the Odessa flat where the explosion happened. He told police that he and Madayev had flown to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey, with precise instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov. According to the reports, details of the plot were found on laptops in the flat, along with a video showing Mr Putin's motorcade. Mr Osmayev was reported to be the local fixer in Odessa and the instructor for the plotters, and had lived for a long time in London.

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You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens

"You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens and people are doing so to guard their property," Mr Chrysanthopoulos told me from his home outside the capital yesterday. Thanks to the disastrous euro, his country is sliding remorselessly towards bankruptcy and disintegration. Modern Greece is an economic corpse, kept on life support by Germany and France, who fear the euro will be destroyed if they admit the truth. Last week's £110BILLION bailout was not aimed at rescuing the Greek people. It was to save the euro from total collapse. Yet the country seems doomed to another historic crisis as disastrous as the German occupation, a bloody civil war and years of military rule. "What we risk today is anarchy, the collapse of society and a breakdown in law and order," says Mr Chrysanthopoulos, 66. "We have more than 20,000 homeless families in Athens alone. "There are food lines for the hungry, which have not been seen since the Second World War. "Penniless pensioners are begging in the streets. People are bartering for essentials, living hand to mouth." Sooner or later they will be thrown out of the euro — the greatest peacetime catastrophe in the history of Europe. Hatred seethes against Germany, which in 1942 reduced Greece to starvation and slavery during its brutal Nazi occupation. A Greek radio station has just been fined for describing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "dirty Berlin slut". Nazi resistance fighter Manolis Glezos, now 89, says Germany plundered Greece for the equivalent of £138billion in the 1940s. "They grab us by the throat for the debt — let's do the same to them for the reparations," he says. Germans hit back, branding the Greeks "idle swindlers". They claim nobody pays tax because bandit politicians steal their money. The insults are fuelling precisely the nationalistic antagonism that sowed the seeds for two world wars — and which the EU was created to eliminate forever. Germany and France, who must accept the blame for allowing Greece into the euro at all, are terrified of contagion. So they are forcing this humiliated nation to slash pay and pensions to starvation levels. Last week's costly bailout has bought time — and the fantasy of an orderly default. Mr Chrysanthopoulos feels betrayed by the euro currency con. But he is not alone. Charles Kennedy, the Lib Dems' fervently pro-euro ex-leader, last week admitted: "I was wrong." His successor, the made-in-Brussels Nick Clegg, admits he would no longer join the euro. Two former editors of the fanatically pro-Brussels Financial Times confess they backed the wrong horse. Ex-EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein admits: "The euro has failed." We will never hear honesty like that from Ken Clarke and Michael Heseltine, who lost the Tories three elections by stoking the row over Europe. But unlike Mr Chrysanthopoulos, they will probably die comfortably in their beds without witnessing the hideous consequences. Greek instability risks spilling over to fragile ex-fascist regimes Spain and Portugal. If it does, we can only hope it doesn't bring chaos to Italy — then to France. People will take only so much belt-tightening austerity. More revolutions have been triggered by oppressive taxes than anything else. The drive for ever closer political and economic union and the end of national rivalry was aimed at ending war in Europe. We must pray the arrogant fools who launched this undemocratic juggernaut do not achieve precisely the opposite.

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TONY Adams has been compared to TV gangster Tony Soprano, and his gang are rumoured to be responsible for 25 murders.

 

 When he appeared in court last November, he gave his address as the cottage in Barnet. Land Registry documents confirm the property is owned by Cole, 31. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the player, who has a multi-million-pound property investment portfolio. Adams, once said to be worth £150 million, headed a notorious North London crime gang nicknamed the A-team or Adams Family. He bought a yacht and sent his daughter to a private school. But in 2007 he was jailed for seven years — for money laundering his own wages — after an undercover operation by MI5 and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Just like Chicago mobster Al Capone, he had escaped justice for years before finally being nailed for tax evasion. Officers spent 21 months and £10 million eavesdropping on Adams. During the probe his accountant was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a hitman was reputedly buried in the foundations of London's O2 Arena. A search of Adams' £1million former home uncovered £700,000 worth of stolen goods. Adams was released in 2010 after serving half his sentence. But last year he was sent back to do the rest of his time after he defied a financial reporting order and failed to declare luxury purchases including a £7,500 facelift. His earliest release date is now December 2013.

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European court rules against Italy for expelling migrants

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ruled that Italy had violated it human rights obligations when it deported a group of African migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea to Libya in 2009. The decision delivered in Strasbourg by 17 judges of the court was described as a 'landmark' by the United Nation's Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and was also welcomed by several rights groups in Italy and elsewhere. Italy's International Cooperation Minister, Andrea Riccardi, said that the ruling would force Italy to 'think and rethink our policies towards migration.' The case concerned 24 Somalis and Eritreans who were in a group of 200 migrants intercepted by the Italian Coast Guard 35 nautical miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa.

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Belarus fights Europe to retain death penalty

Belarusian MPs have blasted a recent resolution of the European Parliament on death penalty in Belarus as an attempt to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. The Belarusian parliamentary commission on international affairs has issued an official statement saying that the European Parliament’s resolution on the death penalty in Belarus was a continuation of the practice of pressuring Belarusian authorities and meddling with the country’s internal affairs. Additionally, the Belarusian side noted that from the text of the resolution they could draw a conclusion that the European side did not pay much attention to the credibility of facts and the logic of conclusions. In particular, the Belarusian parliamentarians criticized the fact that the case of Metro bombers Konovalov and Kovalyov, mentioned in the resolution, is called unjust, despite of the fact that the trial in the case was open to the maximum and well-covered by the media. The Belarusian politicians also expressed surprise over the fact that their country was called the Belarusian Federation in the European Parliament’s resolution, while its official name is Republic of Belarus. However, the text of the resolution posted on the European Parliament’s website in English uses the correct name. Belarusian MPs stressed that the use of capital punishment in their country is not against international norms and its use is extremely limited, and in practice happens only in extraordinary cases. The ban on capital punishment is the internal affair of the Republic of Belarus and can only be made with consideration of the Belarusian society’s opinion, the politicians said.

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Fishing skippers fined £720,000

 

Seventeen skippers behind one of Scotland's biggest fishing scams have been fined a total of £720,000. The group admitted making illegal landings of mackerel and herring worth £47.5 million between January 1 2002 and March 19 2005. The "black fish" scam, which broke sea fishing laws, was carried out at fish processing factory Shetland Catch in Lerwick, Shetland. Judge Lord Turnbull said the scam is "an episode of shame" for the pelagic fishing industry. He said it was a "cynical and sophisticated" operation which had the "connivance of a number of different interested parties". Hamish Slater, 53, and Alexander Masson, 66, both from Fraserburgh, were fined a respective £80,000 and £50,000, while Alexander Wiseman, 60, from Banff, was also fined £50,000. Another 13 men from Shetland were fined for their role in the scam. Robert Polson, 48, was fined £70,000; John Irvine, 68, was fined £80,000; William Williamson, 65, was fined £45,000; Laurence Irvine, 66, was fined £80,000; and David Hutchison, 66, was fined £40,000, as was 56-year-old Thomas Eunson. Both Allister Irvine, 63, and Gary Williamson, 52, were fined £35,000; and George Henry, 60, was fined £12,000. John Stewart, 57, was ordered to pay £15,000, while George Anderson, 56, must pay £12,000. Colin Leask, 39, and Allen Anderson, 55, were each fined £3,000 A £70,000 fine was imposed on Victor Buchini, 51, from Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire. The company Alexander Buchan was fined £240,000 for helping the vessel masters land the undeclared fish. The pelagic fishermen, who committed the offences to evade the annual EU fishing quota, had already been ordered to hand over almost £3 million in confiscation orders at a previous court hearing. The convictions came as the result of a seven-year investigation, Operation Trawler, after the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA), now Marine Scotland, became suspicious about widespread illegal landing of fish within the pelagic fleet. Pelagic fish are those which swim near the water's surface. Auditors KPMG reviewed Shetland Catch and found that between January 1 2002 and March 28 2004, the company's earnings were not supported by its declared landings. The company premises were searched on September 27 2005 and officials found that scales used to weigh fish coming into the factory had been manipulated to provide false weights. Management were able to input fake wastage figures into a computer in the main factory, accessible to inspectors from the SFPA, which would be deducted from the actual weight shown on the screen. The proper weight was displayed on screens in the engineer's room and in a loft area, both of which were off-limits to SFPA officials. The computer in the loft area was where the weight manipulation took place. It could be accessed remotely by two members of staff, a fish buyer and the then assisting managing director, using a username and password, allowing them to program it to provide false weights. Lord Turnbull said the proceedings brought "embarrassment and shame" to the skippers and their families. He said: "All of the accused who appear today have spent their working lives as productive and hard-working members of our community. Barring other regulatory infringements, not a single one has ever come into any conflict with the law. "It was not surprising therefore to hear of the well-respected positions within their communities which many held and of the embarrassment and shame which these proceedings have brought to them personally and to their families." The judge said the fishing industry "makes a crucial contribution" to the well-being of many communities and to the economy of the country as a whole. He added: "There would of course be no fishing industry were it not for the willingness of fishermen to go to sea. It is correct to acknowledge that in doing so,fishermen require to cope with challenging circumstances of isolation from family members and often with dangerous and frightening weather conditions, the likes of which will be wholly unfamiliar to others with more conventional working environments. "Over the history of the fishing industry and even in recent times in Scotland, tragedy has often visited the families of those who spend their working lives at sea." The judge also noted that each master involved "made no attempt" to disguise their true income from the fish and paid income tax on both the declared and undeclared landings. But he said the men had all participated in "a deliberate and calculated determination to evade the quota levels for fishing available to each vessel" for "purely financial" reasons. He said: "The system through which this was achieved was both cynical and sophisticated and involved the connivance of a number of different interested parties, some of whom have benefited but have not been prosecuted. "The extent to which landings of fish were deliberately under-declared was at times truly staggering and in the case of some of the accused concerned, took place continuously over a three-year period. "What I found to be noteworthy was that no understandable explanation was provided on behalf of any the vessel masters as to why this practice was commenced or continued with. "No one for example appears to have engaged in this exercise on account of struggling to cope financially with the costs of continued fishing within the quota levels allocated. "Indeed, in contrast to some within the fishing industry, those engaged in fishing with the pelagic fleet appear to have been able to make very substantial sums over many years, providing very comfortable livings for themselves and their families. "In short then, and as was conceded by at least some of those who appeared before me, the motivation for the sustained furnishing of false information was purely financial. Those who were already making a good living saw this as a way in which more income could be generated. "No doubt the fact that so many were involved lent a veneer of acceptability to the conduct but there is another side to that as well: the fact that so many were prepared to participate in deliberate lies and falsehood means that the desire for financial benefit was able to overshadow the instincts of fairness, truthfulness and responsibility which will have influenced every other aspect of the lives of those concerned and which values they would expect to see others, including their own family members, abide by. "The result is an episode of shame for much of the whole pelagic fishing industry. "I have however accepted in each case that these proceedings have been responded to responsibly and that those concerned regret their involvement and the embarrassment which has been brought to them personally and to their families." The men had previously been subjected to a reduced quota of fish to "balance out" the environmental effect of years of overfishing. But the judge insisted that this was not a punishment but an "exercise in conservation". He said: "I do not accept that the accused in this case have lost out or have been made worse off as a consequence of these arrangements. I accept as accurate the observation that looking back with hindsight had they never over-fished at all then they would have achieved a greater income over the extended period than they in fact have. "That is due to the massive increase in the prices obtained for the type of fish with which I am concerned in the period since 2002. That however is no more than an irony of the situation. It does not reflect any actual loss to those concerned. In fact, as a consequence of the increased value of the fish, those involved have still been able to generate very substantial incomes, despite being restricted to catching a smaller quantity. "If the current prices remain stable then when the quota deduction arrangements have been exhausted, they will be in a position to increase that income even further." He also referred to "activities of foreign fishing vessels" in exceeding fishing quotas. The judge said: "If there is an imbalance in the approach of the relevant authorities within the European Union, that is a matter for the relevant ministers to raise with their counterparts. "If vessels belonging to states outwith the European Union are thought to enjoy some inappropriate benefit or are not thought to be complying with their responsibilities concerning stock conservation, that is a matter to be addressed at governmental or international level. "I am dealing with the contravention of a law of this country which was introduced to ensure compliance with the international obligation which the United Kingdom had entered into. "I am entitled to treat that contravention as a serious matter regardless of how it might be thought that similar conduct would be or has been responded to elsewhere." Three more fishermen pleaded guilty today in a separate case but which was part of the same investigation. James Smith, 54, from Fraserburgh, John Smith, 36, from Peterhead and Stephen Bellamy, 59, from Fraserburgh all admitted landing undeclared fish at Fresh Catch in Peterhead and at Shetland Catch in Lerwick. Sentencing was deferred to May 18. An inspection in November 2005 at the Alexander Buchan firm detected an unofficial weigh belt fitted with "load cells" to the conveyor belt system at the point where fish entered the factory. The cells are used to detect the weight of fish passing over the belt. A deflector plate had been used on the unofficial weigh belt, allowing the fish to drop off part of the way along the official scales. As the fish did not travel over the full area, a lower weight was achieved on the counter. This method is said to have allowed up to 70% of a total landing to go unrecorded. Alexander Buchan, which is no longer trading, has already been ordered to pay £165,000 in a confiscation order. A third fish processing factory, Fresh Catch, also admitted helping vessel masters land undeclared fish between October 20 2002 and September 2 2005 at its premises in Kirk Square near Peterhead. Skippers Ernest Simpson, 64, from Fraserburgh, Allan Simpson, 42, from Fraserburgh, and Oswald McRonald, 63, from Banff, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow today to landing undeclared fish at the factory. Their sentences were also deferred until May 18. Fresh Catch was audited by KPMG during the same period as Shetland Catch and it too was found to have earnings unsupported by official landing figures. At the factory, fish entered via a delivery pipe which went up and over the building. However, a search of the premises in September 2005 uncovered a purpose-built pipe, leading underground, was also connected. This second pipe bypassed the official weigh scale. Knife valves were used to divert the fish when they came to a T-junction, allowing fish to be sent to another part of the factory and was never weighed or officially accounted for. In 2005 the two valves become remote controlled and the direction the fish took at the junction depended on which one was open or closed. Fresh Catch only became significantly operational at around the time the scam began. Cephas Ralph, head of compliance at Marine Scotland, said the divert pipe "certainly served no other purpose" and that "it wasn't put there by accident". All three factories were prosecuted out of Operation Trawler which started in 2005. However, nothing suggested any of the plants were linked. At the time of the undeclared landings, Shetland Catch was the largest pelagic fish processing operator in Scotland and one of the largest in Europe. It was able to process and freeze up to 1,000 tonnes of fish a day. EU regulations state that when a vessel reaches its quota, it has the option to either stop fishing or to buy some of another vessel's quota which has not yet been reached. Any vessel which exceeds its quota faces disciplinary action. When the investigation started 26 vessels were in the pelagic fleet, with eight pelagic fish processing factories. More than half (15) of those boats have been prosecuted. Mr Ralph said the investigation had an immediate effect on the entire industry and that Marine Scotland is now satisfied that legislation is in place to ensure a similar scam does not happen again. He said: "Since 2005 we detected a change which spilled out beyond the pelagic industry. It is more important to the vessels to have a good reputation. "It is fair to say we are satisfied that we have inspection procedures, legislation, a mindset in place in the industry that means if such activity was to recommence, it would be quickly detected and dealt with. "We have not had anything similar since these cases and all our intelligence suggests that no similar activities are taking place." Afterwards Lindsey Miller, head of the serious and organised crime division of the Crown Office, said: "Organised crime takes many forms. These individuals may not have been involved in drug dealing or prostitution but let us make no mistake that they were involved in significant and serious organised criminality." She added: "The legislation is there to protect the marine environment for the good of all and to safeguard the future of the fishing industry. These men disregarded it for their own financial gain and, in a clear example of successful working between the law enforcement agencies involved, have now been brought to justice and made to pay for their crimes." The police investigation was led by Detective Superintendent Gordon Gibson of Grampian Police who said the scale of the crime is of "a level rarely seen before". The men involved "amassed huge sums of money through their own greed and today this caught up with them in a court of law", he added. Meanwhile, Cephas Ralph said: "Today's successful court activity is an outcome that reflects the professionalism, dedication and commitment shown by all of the Marine Scotland staff who have been involved in this inquiry. "It has not been an easy task but they have worked tirelessly to help secure the convictions obtained in these important cases." Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead paid tribute to the police and Marine Scotland for their efforts in "a long and vastly complicated inquiry". He said: "There is no doubt that these illegal activities are a stark and shameful reminder of the culture that existed in some sectors of the fishing industry in past years. But they do not reflect the much-improved culture we see today. "The offences date back up to a decade ago and thankfully there has been seismic change in the attitude and behaviour of the fishing fleet, which can only be good thing in securing a viable future for the industry in Scotland." He also said: "There have been significant advances in recent years in how fish landings are monitored and controlled, including comprehensive audits and certified weighing systems." Dr Mireille Thom, senior marine policy officer at WWF Scotland, said ignoring quotas "isn't a victim-less offence" because "such landings not only undermine the conservation of fish stocks and the fortune of the fleets that fish them, they also distort competition by depressing fish prices. In short, they threaten the public good for the benefit of a few".

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Police uncover 'serious and organised' criminality in £63m scam to breach European fishing quotas

An inquiry into the UK's largest fishing scandal has uncovered "serious and organised" criminality by Scottish trawlermen and fish processors in an elaborate scam to illegally sell nearly £63m of undeclared fish.

Three large fish factories and 27 skippers have pleaded guilty to sophisticated and lucrative schemes to breach EU fishing quotas, in what one senior police officer described as "industrial level" deception.

They went to extraordinary lengths to conceal their illegally caught fish, installing underground pipelines, secret weighing machines and extra conveyor belts and computers to allow them to land 170,000 tonnes above their EU quota of mackerel and herring between 2002 and 2005.

The extent of the "black landings" scandal emerged as 17 skippers and one of the three factories were given fines totalling nearly £1m at the high court in Glasgow on Friday, after admitting repeated breaches of the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) (Scotland) Order 2000. Another six skippers pleaded guilty at the same hearing to landing undeclared fish worth nearly £7m at Lerwick, in the Shetlands, and Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

Four skippers pleaded guilty in January and a further four in the ring, who can't be named for legal reasons, are still to be prosecuted.

Judge Lord Turnbull, told the 17 skippers sentenced on Friday they were guilty of a "cynical and sophisticated" operation, which brought embarrassment and shameon them and their families. "The motivation was purely financial," he said. "Those who were already making a good living saw this as a way more income could be generated and were prepared to participate in deliberate lies and falsehoods."

Once the illegally caught fish had been sneaked past Government inspectors, it was put on sale in the Lerwick and Peterhead markets, where it was sold to wholesalers and fishmongers as if it had been legally landed, in defiance of strict EU regulations designed to protectEurope's fish stocks from over-fishing.

The Guardian can reveal that the illegally landed fish was sold with the knowledge of the government-funded industry marketing authority Seafish, which took a £2.58 levy for every tonne of over-quota mackerel and herring. That earned it £434,000 in fees before the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency, now part of Marine Scotland, raided two factories in September 2005.

The headquarters of Seafish in Edinburgh were raided by police and documents seized in 2008, but five months later prosecutors decided not to take any further action. It is thought the Crown Office, the Scottish prosecution body, believed there was no evidence that could lead to the agency being accused of involvement in the scam.

With a series of court cases stretching back to 2010, the scandal has implicated more than half the Scottish mackerel and herring fleet active at that time. It is understood that the true value of the illegal landings linked to the factories involved is closer to £100m, but prosecutors decided to pursue just £63m of landings.

How one Peterhead factory sidestepped the rules. Source: Guardian graphics

Prosecutors have also confiscated £3.1m from 17 skippers who landed catches in Lerwick, and against two of the three firms so far convicted, under proceedings of crime legislation introduced to tackle serious criminal gangs and drugs lords. The largest confiscation order, £425,9000, was against Hamish Slater, the skipper of the trawler Enterprise from Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, who admitted landing £3,980,000 worth of undeclared fish. A number of skippers landed fish worth more than £2m.

At Shetland Catch in Lerwick, one of Europe's largest fish processors, the company installed a duplicate conveyor belt when its new factory was built, fitting a secret weight-reading device in the loft and a computer in an engineer's workshop "a considerable distance" from the factory floor.

In its processing plant at Peterhead, north of Aberdeen, Fresh Catch installed an underground pipe to divert fish to secret weighing devices, which used remotely operated pneumatic valves. It built a secret storage room, and operated the clandestine machinery from a hut known to workers as the Wendy House, disguised with fake "Danger: high voltage" signs on its door.

A second factory in the town, Alexander Buchan, which has since closed, fitted a secret scale and conveyor belt, which allowed up to 70% of a boat's catch to go undeclared. It printed a guidance manual showing its staff how to handle undeclared landings, and its staff misled trading standards officers about its purpose.

Detective Superintendent Gordon Gibson, of Grampian police, the senior investigating officer in Operation Trawler, said: "Make no bones about it: it was serious, it was organised and it was criminal. The element of preparation involved was significant, given the methods and means that all these individuals went to.

"Was I surprised? Absolutely. I was surprised at the levels they had gone to disguise their criminal conduct."

An industry source admitted: "This wasn't casual or by accident. It was organised, it was systematic, it was deception. No one disagrees with that."

In a further penalty, which is thought to have cost the convicted skippers millions, the European commission cut the quotas soon after the scandal was reported to Brussels by the UK government in 2005, calling it a "quota payback".

Although none of the trawlermen have been banned from fishing, their quotas were cut by more than 116,000 tonnes of mackerel and nearly 47,000 tonnes of herring over a seven-year period. That payback will end next year.

One source with detailed knowledge of the case said this had damaging consequences for skippers and crews involved, as the market value of mackerel and herring since 2005 had been as much as double the price 10 years ago.

The convictions follow a complex, 10-year investigation involving forensic accountants from KPMG, who analysed the paperwork for thousands of landings, a core team of 25 detectives and support staff from Grampian and Northern police, four British sea fishery officers with Marine Scotland, the Home Office Holmes police computer system, money laundering experts with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, and specialist prosecutors at the Crown Office.

Operation Trawler has brought to an end a practice which was once endemic in the British fishing industry, but has been made extremely difficult by hi-tech monitoring and tracking of every registered trawler at sea, and much tighter controls on landings at processing firms.

The skippers and firms involved have refused to discuss their convictions; Shetland Catch is still facing confiscation proceedings. But sources with detailed knowledge of the scandal have admitted the practice was widespread within the pelagic fishing industry. Lawyers for one of the convicted men, George Anderson, 55, from Whalsay, Shetland, claimed this year that he evaded the controls because he believed that discarding under-sized fish was "repugnant".

"Black landings" are still common practice across the EU, and prosecutions still take place. In Lerwick and Peterhead, some insist that the undeclared landings, which helped many of the skippers and their crews enjoy comparatively luxurious lifestyles, were well-known within the industry and among regulators.

Asked about its knowledge of the illegal landings, Seafish told the Guardian it was legally required to take the levy, and insisted it had tipped off the authorities to the over-quota landings. However, one source said that the issue was discussed in board meetings, "but the Seafish line was that we weren't a fishery protection agency, our job was to take a levy on every tonne landed."

He added: "They were totally aware they were getting a levy on quota and over-quota fish."

The source denied it was serious and organised crime: the skippers involved paid income tax and business taxes alongside the Seafish levy on all their illegal landings, largely because the over-quota fish was sold in the fish markets as if it were legally declared. Fraud charges were dropped by prosecutors at an early stage, he said.

But he added: "There is nobody defending this. It was morally wrong; it was ecologically wrong and sustainably wrong. There is no excuse.

"A lot of the skippers are saying, 'What we did wasn't right; it was wrong. We really want to draw a line under this and move forward.'"

He said the scandal had the effect of transforming Scotland's pelagic fishing industry into one of the most sustainable in the world: after the raids, the mackerel and herring fleet introduced very strict monitoring and quota management. Since 2008, its fisheries have won a prized Marine Stewardship Council eco-label, and are now the largest in Europe with MSC certification.

But the "black landings" scandal is coming back to haunt the industry. It is expected to lose its MSC accreditation later this year after a bitter dispute with the Faroe Islands and Iceland: both countries have claimed much larger mackerel quotas than is sustainable for the north-east Atlantic stocks, in breach of MSC rules. The Faroese in particular believe the over-quota prosecutions puts the Scottish industry's credibility in severe doubt.

"It's not a proud moment for what is a very proud industry," one senior figure conceded.

Richard Lochhead, the Scottish agriculture secretary, said the convicted were guilty of appalling behaviour. "These illegal activities are a stark and shameful reminder of the culture that existed in some sectors of the fishing industry in past years," he said.

"Thankfully, there has been seismic change in the attitude and behaviour of the fishing fleet, which can only be good thing in securing a viable future for the industry."

Dr Mireille Thom, a senior marine policy officer for the conservation group WWF Scotland, said: "Deliberately ignoring quota rules by landing 'black fish' isn't a victimless offence. Such landings not only undermine the conservation of fish stocks and the fortune of the fleets that fish them, they also distort competition by depressing fish prices. In short, they threaten the public good for the benefit of a few."

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Estonian gangsters netted a quarter of a million pounds worth of designer watches from a jewellers in Newcastle city centre.

Members of an Eastern European gang who flew around the continent for armed robbery day trips were today jailed for a £250,000 raid on a UK jewellers.

In a daring smash and grab attack lasting just 31 seconds, three Estonian gangsters netted a quarter of a million pounds worth of designer watches from a jewellers in Newcastle city centre.

Convicted murderer Marek Viidemann and his accomplice Sander Sarik smashed display cabinets with hammers, while Raido Ragga held staff at gunpoint to stop them raising the alarm.

Daring: The Estonian budget-airline bandits pictured on security camera during their raid on Berry's jewellers in Newcastle city centre

The trio were part of a wider gang targeting jewellers around Europe, whose members were bought flights by crime bosses in Estonia and ordered to carry out the robberies.

Gangsters who owed money to organised crime were recruited to carry out the robberies on day trips to their destinations around the UK and elsewhere.

They would fly back to eastern Europe the next day while the stolen goods would be shipped separately.

 

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Jailing Viidemann for 10 years, Judge Brian Forster, at Newcastle Crown Court, told him: 'You were part of an international crime gang.

'You were willing to cause terror and fear and your purpose was to get as much as you could as quickly as you could and then leave the country.

'This was a daring and terrifying robbery and was carried out without regard to those who work in the shop.

'The courts will protect the citizens of Newcastle from anyone who thinks they can come and prey upon them.'

Fast: In just over 30 seconds, the gang swiped a quarter of a million pound worth of watches from the jewellers, as terrified staff were held at gunpoint

Viidemann, Sarik and Ragga struck at Berry’s jewellers, on Grey Street, Newcastle, at around 10am on August 20, 2008.

Convicted killer: Marek Viidemann, 35, was jailed for 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court for his part in the raid

Ragga went in brandishing a handgun while Viidemann and Sarik used hammers to get to the valuables.

Mark Simpson, prosecuting, said: 'The gunman pointed the handgun at staff and told them to get down.

'The others smashed the display cabinets and took 31 watches and the best makes were targeted.'

After just 31 seconds in the store they were gone, removing clothing and gloves as they left the scene.

Police recovered the clothes that had been left behind and found Viidemann’s DNA on them. Some of the stolen watches were later found on a coach in Dover.

Viidemann, 35, fled the country and ended up back in Estonia. He was finally detained on a European arrest warrant in his home city of Tallinn, the Estonian capital, last October.

Ragga, 26, and Sarik, 22, went on to carry out robberies at other Berry’s stores in Chester and Windsor. They were both jailed for 11 years at earlier hearings elsewhere.

Too late: Police outside the high-class jewellers after the robbery

The court heard Viidemann had a conviction in his homeland for aggravated murder for gain and robbery, for which he was jailed for 10 years in 1998.

In that offence he and four others beat a man to death to steal from him.

Judge Forster asked how he had got into this country, but prosecutors did not know. The Border Agency will be informed of his latest conviction.

Andrew Rutter, defending Viidemann, said: 'His involvement in this robbery came about because he had fallen on hard times in Estonia.

'It was not his scheme but he accepts he lent himself to it.'

Members of the organised crime gang have struck across Europe and five other robbers have previously been jailed for a total of more than 55 years.

The ring was linked to at least 150 armed robberies across the UK and Europe.

Jewellers were targeted in places including Leeds, Manchester, the West Midlands, London, Cheshire and Newcastle, while they also carried out raids in Germany, Sweden, Italy and Finland.

Detectives from Monaco even flew to Britain to quiz a member of the gang over a $75,000 raid on a Monte Carlo jewellers.

Police believed the gang stole watches worth more than £1million in total, few of which were ever recovered.

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One in seven Cambridge students 'has sold drugs to help pay their way through university'

 

One in seven Cambridge students is  dealing drugs to help pay their way through university, according to a survey. It found many claim that they have been forced to sell illegal substances to friends to make ends meet as they study. And it revealed nearly two-thirds admitted taking drugs, with cannabis the most  popular substance.

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ENVELOPES full of cash, drug habits funded by EU grants and police taking payments to legalise prostitutes – you name it, it has happened in Spain.

 

 Add to those a snail-paced justice system and, a law society in Malaga that fails to scrutinize bent lawyers, and things start to look distinctly cloudy. Consider too that last week Spain’s top anti-corruption lawyer, Baltasar Garzon, was suspended from his post for illegally tapping the phones of lawyers, and most will come to the same conclusion. “Yes, corruption is certainly endemic in Spain,” says Gwilym Rhys-Jones, an Estepona-based financial expert. “Sadly there is a tradition of it and it became institutionalised since the late 1980s as nobody was dealing with it from the top down.” There is certainly nowhere better to highlight the problem than here on the Costa del Sol, where in Marbella for over two decades you could only get anything done if you were prepared to pay for it. Under the current Malaya corruption trial, centred around Marbella Town Hall, which has been going for over a year. Over a hundred councillors, mayors, businessmen and civil servants are currently on trial for taking backhanders totalling up to 2.4 billion euros. And sadly, the same state of affairs was taking place at hundreds of town halls around the country, with a central government apparently prepared to turn a blind eye. It led to hotels and golf courses being built in national parks, developments installed in river flood plains and hundreds of thousands of illegal – and unsellable – homes around the country. It comes as no surprise then that Transparency International has listed Spain as more corrupt than Uruguay, Chile and Qatar, and almost on a par with of Botswana – quite a feat for the fourth richest nation in the European Union. And while some might like to point the finger at the right or the left, the range of cases shows that bending the rules for personal gain goes right across the spectrum. The Conservative PP party has often been in the spotlight – most recently thanks to the Gurtel case, in Valencia – but the PSOE socialist party, particularly with the ERE pension scandal in Andalucia, certainly takes some beating. Even the royal family may have dipped its toes in the murky waters, with King Juan Carlos’ son-in-law about to stand trial for a misuse of public funds and embezzlement. So where did it all begin? Franco regarded it as the ‘necessary lubrication for the system’, according to historian Stanley Payne. While central government appears to be largely free of endemic corruption, in the regions it is quite a different story. In Andalucia, for example, UGT trade union leader Manuel Pastrana believes as many as 75 per cent of the region’s town halls are corrupt. This is partly down to the fact that much of Spain’s corruption is linked to illegal planning, which is said to be more profitable than drug dealing – mainly because tourism is the biggest earner on the Costa del Sol. It’s a simple tale, and sadly all too common. Developers purchase non-urban, rural land for knock-down prices, then pay corrupt town hall mayors to reclassify the land as available to develop. This leaves the developers to build whatever they like – and it is arrangements like this that explain the illegal 411-bedroom Algarrobico hotel in Almeria’s Cabo de Gata natural park – which will thankfully be demolished any day now. The question is, why are so many mayors and councillors tempted to the dark side, considering the possible environmental and criminal consequences? Aside from describing Spain as having the ‘slowest justice system in the known world’, investigator Rhys-Jones argues that it is human nature to be tempted by money once it’s dangled in front of you. “When people see a massive amount of money, they can’t help but steal it. It’s human nature,” he says, using the unscrupulous former Marbella mayor Jesus Gil as his example. Jesus Gil was described as the bad apple that spoilt Marbella’s bunch “Gil was a crook, but he started out with good intentions. Marbella was a mess in the 1980s. Property wasn’t selling. It was a dump filled with drugs and hookers. So Gil started a political party, the GAL, to try and sort it out.” But this apparent do-gooder turned resident evil, with many describing Gil – who was convicted in 2002 – as being the bad apple that spoiled Marbella’s bunch. Either way his legacy was a disaster and has led to the following three mayors – as well as his main cohort, planning boss Juan Antonio Roca, who became the svengali of the operation – all facing prison. Much of the corruption comes down to backgrounds and a lack of education, believes Marbella-based lawyer Antonio Flores. “A lot of mayors have previously had rural-based jobs, without the ability to make any money,” he explains. “The moment they have responsibility, the temptation to make money becomes too great. After four years in power, they’ll often have to go back to their tractors,” he says. A classic example of a rags-to-riches mayor is Julian Munoz, also heavily implicated in the Malaya case, who worked as a waiter before running Marbella Town Hall in 2002. Roca, too, had been on the dole before going on to pilfer 30 million euros. Planning boss Juan Antonio Roca, the main man in the Malaya case Flores compares town hall councillors with more prominent politicians in central government who are less reliant on get-rich-quick methods: “It’s not so difficult to get another job when you’re in a higher political position,” he says. The good news is that most commentators agree that corruption in Spain is on its way out. “The Malaya case was where the mentality changed,” estimates Flores. “It was a turning point for corruption and the Marbella run by thugs completely collapsed when they were all arrested. “As Spain becomes more civilised, we are slowly getting rid of corruption,” he continues. “But it has definitely not gone completely,” argues Rhys Jones. “That will take quite a few more decades.” As for shamed Judge Garzon, opinion remains firmly divided on whether he too was a man who let power corrupt him… or whether he has been silenced by a country whose corruption will be harder to iron out than some may hope. Big cases Malaya Planning chief Juan Antonio Roca is at the heart of this 2.4 billion euro scandal in Marbella. The unelected Roca operated a cash-for-permissions scheme, which saw over 18,000 homes built illegally. Gurtel Businessman Francisco Correa gave money to PP bosses in Valencia in return for lucrative contracts with the regional government. ERE The Junta is being investigated in a 647m euro retirement scandal, where posts were created in non-existent companies in order to defraud public funds. Ballena Blanca One of the largest money laundering cases in Europe, with 21 people accused of investing proceeds from drug trafficking and prostitution in property via over a thousand companies.

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EU clampdown on unregulated financial advisers in Spain

 

The European Commission is to consider setting up an ombudsman to help expat victims reclaim against unregistered financial firms. It comes after a local pressure group, that represents over 1,000 victims, sent a dossier of information to Brussels. The Costa del Sol Action Group demanded action against the advisers who, it claims, have lost their clients over €120 million (£102 million). “It is good news as something has to be done about this bunch of rogues,” said group founder David Klein. “The current Spanish regulatory system is totally inadequate and ineffective. Dealing with the authorities is a constant game of ping-pong. Anyone can come to Spain and be a financial adviser; they could have been selling fish before they came here for all anyone knows." This situation could soon be coming to an end, after the European Commission confirmed it was to begin "a preliminary investigation of the problem". Foreign Office plans evacuation of expats 18 Dec 2011 It has asked for more information and the action group has called on all victims to write to the European Parliament outlining their experience. “This problem is causing untold stress and heartache in the expatriate community and it cannot be allowed to continue,” explained Klein. The European Commission is to study how investors would be able to make an official complaint against Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs). At present, there is no effective means for victims to make a complaint against product providers who work with unregistered IFAs. The group was also highly critical of the local media for its willingness to accept adverts from unregulated financial firms in a bid to maximise advertising revenue. To highlight the problem, the group included testimonials by members who were allegedly defrauded by one specialist investment brokerage, which it claims is "not regulated or registered". It said the company was able to trade, "collecting unsuspecting clients who are soon relieved of their money". One Costa del Sol-based financial adviser, Richard Alexander, said he was pleased with the EU’s response. “Bring on the review,” he said. “I have seen too many sad stories of people being turned over, badly advised or grossly over-charged by unregulated independent financial advisors in Spain. "It is entirely possible to provide professional, quality advice without the client losing out.”

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Poor men and lonely wealthy women

I see so many lonely women out here in the world today. Of course, there are lonely guys as well. But, in my opinion men react and respond differently to their problems. We almost never actually admit that we are alone, except when our self-esteem is compromised. We just go with the flow. But for women, it is a totally different story. “I am so alone,” was what she would say. I hear this all the time from the opposite sex. Why is this so in the modern-day world? Are we men not doing our jobs?   This brings me to the recent lonely end of soul-siren Whitney Houston and UK Amy Winehouse in 2011 respectively, whose public battles with drugs and alcohol often overshadowed their music success. May their musical souls rest in peace! These are glaring examples of lonely women. It is an open secret that Whitney had been a ‘druggy’ for years, which had become more pronounced after her tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, whom she divorced before her death. Rumours had it that Amy was killed by lack of love, not a drug addiction. I think this is probably true. Another example is that of Lady Gaga, who recently admitted in an interview, “Yes I’m lonely, but I’m married to my loneliness.” It is quite interesting to know so much about her. She has said loneliness is the only thing she loves the most. Nevertheless, I wish her good luck! Now, you may wonder what the situation is Namibia?  One of the most well-known examples of this ‘loneliness phenomenon’ is the infamous middle finger gesture employed by a well-known personality in Namibia’s showbiz last year.    Was that a sign of loneliness?  Well, without risking my poor miserable life I’ll leave that to the reader to figure out. Today, with the advent of equal opportunities and interventions, our ladies in the ‘Land of the Brave’ have made great strides in business, politics, TIPEEG, BEE, Namdeb, highly skilled professions and the list goes on, which makes them wealthy but ‘lonely.’ You will agree with me that successful women are multiplying in Namibia, but sadly, success has been unsettling for some as they are struggling to keep their ‘unemployed’ boyfriends or husbands, who feel that they can’t compromise on their self-esteem and would leave relationships in which they can’t cope with the rich lifestyle of their girlfriends or women – and therefore rendering many women lonely. I know many of them. Rich women have difficulties managing fulfilling relationships and therefore end up being lonely. My advice to these lonely Eves is simple; do not pride yourself in intimidation, aggression and power. No man will accept to be controlled by a wife just because he is poor. Instead, a rich wife must remain strong but be humble and respect her husband to make him stronger. No matter how much wealth a woman can attain, she will still long for a person she can share her life with; not to mention her wealth with. Although money can be friendly, rich women still need someone who will be there for them and just simply love them. We do not want a Whitney or Amy Winehouse situation to play off in our country or do we?. Until then, Eewa!

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MP Eric Joyce charged with assault

MP Eric Joyce has been charged with three counts of common assault after a disturbance at a House of Commons bar. The MP for Falkirk, who has been suspended by the Parliamentary Labour Party, was arrested on Wednesday evening after police were called. Mr Joyce, 51, of Bo'ness, near Falkirk, has been bailed and will appear at West London Magistrates' Court on 7 March. The allegations relate to Conservative MP for Pudsey, Stuart Andrew, a second Tory MP and a Labour whip. Mr Andrew had been in the bar on Wednesday following a Commons event organised by his Conservative colleague MP Andrew Percy, for the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament. Having spent nearly 24 hours in custody, Mr Joyce was seen being driven away from the rear of Belgravia police station, in central London, late on Thursday after being charged. Warning to MPs The BBC understands officers involved in the investigation returned to the Commons on Thursday evening to interview eyewitnesses. The allegations relate to a disturbance in the Strangers Bar, which is reserved for MPs and their guests. Mr Bercow told MPs after Mr Joyce was arrested: "I take this matter very seriously, as do the House authorities. "I would ask that no further reference should be made to these reports in the Chamber." Mr Joyce, a former Army major, was elected in a by-election in December 2000 and has served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to a number of government ministers since 2003. He was PPS to the then defence secretary Bob Ainsworth until 2009, and prior to that had been a parliamentary aide to John Hutton, Mike O'Brien and Margaret Hodge.

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teenagers barricade themselves in ski chalet in France

Two Norfolk teenagers are among a group of people who have barricaded themselves into a luxury ski chalet in France because they say they have been unfairly dismissed from their jobs without any pay, Angus Briggs, from Newmarket Road, in Norwich, and Paddy Bartram, from East Tuddenham, had thought they had landed the perfect gap-year jobs when they were employed by Skithe3v to work as chalet hosts at the company’s resort in the Three Valleys area of France. But after working for just two weeks they said they received an email saying their services were no longer required and that they needed to leave the site by the following day. They were also told they would not be receiving any pay. A number of other staff members were also suddenly dismissed, and together they have barricaded themselves in Skithe3v’s Chalet Georgina, just outside Les Menuires, in protest. They have dubbed themselves the Les Menuires 7 and say they will not move until they receive the wages they are owed. Speaking from the chalet, 19-year-old Angus said: “We came out here a couple of weeks ago and we thought we would be doing the chalet hosting job until the end of the season. “As chalet hosts we had been hosting the guests, preparing some meals, and cleaning, and we had done this for two weeks. “But on Monday we were sent an email saying we were being let go, and others were too. “We are both owed about £200 each. “We are quite frustrated - when you do a job you expect to be paid.” He said they would not vacate the chalet until they are paid. “We are making a very peaceful protest,” he added. “We are maintaining the chalet and keeping it tidy and in perfect order. All we are asking is that we get the money we are owed - we will leave the chalet in immaculate condition.” Eighteen-year-old Paddy added: “I was really pleased to get this job and looking forward to it for ages. “I had wanted to do a ski season for several years and it seemed like the perfect job. “But they worked us far more than our working hours and it turns out they were just trying to exploit us,” Angus and Paddy said since Les Menuires 7 started their protest they had received support from people living nearby and also online through Twitter and Facebook. A woman who lives in the Les Menuires area said: “Everybody is talking about what is going at the chalet. It is huge news over here. There is a lot of support for them.” When the Evening News contacted Skithe3v, which has a base in Hanover Road, London, a spokesman said he was unable to comment because the situation was in the hands of the company’s legal team.

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MEP arrested on suspicion of European parliament fraud conspiracy

MEP has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European parliament. West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire, 43, was arrested along with three of her staff on Wednesday, according to another MEP for the West Midlands, Mike Nattrass of Ukip. West Midlands police confirmed a 43-year-old woman was arrested at a police station in Birmingham along with three other people on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European parliament. Two women aged 55 and 39 and a 19-year-old man were arrested at addresses in Solihull, Worcester and Birmingham and were taken to a police station for questioning on Wednesday. Searches were carried out at the addresses of the four people by officers investigating an allegation made in 2010 regarding allowances and expenses, a police spokeswoman said. All four were later released on police bail, she added. On her Twitter account, a spokesman for Sinclaire said the MEP attended the police station in Birmingham voluntarily and co-operated fully with the police. "This is particularly frustrating to Ms Sinclaire who is eager to clear her name and has nothing to hide," said another tweet. The MEP "disputes all allegations put towards her or her staff" the tweets said. Sinclaire and her office would continue to "fully co-operate with the police on this matter". In a statement, Ukip said Sinclaire, who formerly represented the party in the seat, ceased to be an MEP for the party in 2010. "It would be inappropriate for the party to make any comment during the process of an ongoing police inquiry," Ukip's statement said.

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Oscars warn Baron Cohen against red carpet stunt

 

Oscars organizers have warned flamboyant British actor-comedian Sacha Baron Cohen not to try to pull a stunt at this weekend's Academy Awards show, but said he is not banned from attending. The Hollywood Reporter cited sources as saying the star has told Paramount, the studio behind his latest movie "The Dictator," that he plans to turn up on the Oscars red carpet in full bearded, uniformed character Sunday. Reports suggested that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had banned the "Ali G," "Borat" and "Bruno" star altogether, but a spokeswoman denied this Thursday. "The Academy would love to have Sacha at the show. We've let him know how we feel about using the red carpet for a movie stunt and we're waiting to hear from him," she told AFP. Baron Cohen, who is in Martin Scorsese's 11-times Oscar-nominated movie "Hugo," has a history of colorful stunts: in 2006 he turned up at the Toronto film festival in a cart pulled by a "peasant woman" to promote Borat. At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, he descended from the ceiling on a harness dressed as an angel, eventually crashing into Eminem's lap, his buttocks in the rapper's face. Eminem voiced outrage, although it later emerged that the two men had organized the stunt in advance. In "The Dictator," due out in May in the United States, Baron Cohen plays the lead role in "the heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed." A representative for Baron Cohen did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the story.

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Murdoch slashes price for new Sunday tabloid

 

Rupert Murdoch on Thursday fired the opening shot in his battle to reclaim Britain's Sunday newspaper market by announcing his newly launched publication would be half the price of his previous title. The 80-year-old tycoon took to microblogging website Twitter to reveal: "Regular Sunday price for The Sun only 50p -- and Saturday's Sun going down to 50p too! Great news for readers and the economy." Murdoch's News of the World -- the Sunday tabloid which shut seven months ago over the phone-hacking scandal -- cost one pound ($1.57, 1.18 euros), the same cover price as rivals the Sunday Mirror and The People. The 50 percent price cut announced for The Sun on Sunday, which will hit the stands this weekend, signals the Australian-born businessman's hunger to once again own the top-selling Sunday newspaper. The News of the World dominated the country's Sunday market with sales averaging 2.67 million when Murdoch took the decision to close it in July last year. Publisher News International said the US-based mogul would be in London to oversee the launch this Sunday and confirmed that the editor of the weekday paper, Dominic Mohan, would also edit the Sun on Sunday. Murdoch flew in to Britain last week to announce the creation of the new paper and to promise demoralised staff he would stand by them despite the arrest of senior Sun journalists over bribery allegations.

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