Rogue bosses of ‘London's worst letting agency’ jailed over £100,000 scam

Crime reporter(wp/es):::

Three rogue directors of “London’s worst letting agency” who scammed their customers out of more than £100,000 have been jailed. 

Mohammed Rayn Mashuk, 42, Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, 37, and Ahmed Ali Syed, 37, pocketed rent payments and deposits while running Crestons agency, fobbing off landlords and tenants who tried to retrieve their money.  

One couple’s honeymoon was ruined as they battled with Crestons over £8,400 of missing rent, while other victims were forced to instruct lawyers to fight for their money. One family lost £25,000 after hiring the firm to rent out a property, eventually going to the High Court to wind down the company. 

Yesterday at Blackfriars crown court, Judge Jane Sullivan sentenced the three men to two years and four months each in prison, and banned them from acting as company directors for the next eight years. “You each played a leading role, abusing the trust and responsibility placed in you,” the judge said. “This was deliberate reckless trading conducted over a sustained period.”

Prosecutor Richard Heller said £105,000 was taken from at least 19 victims who hired Crestons through its offices in Camden, Islington and Spitalfields. He said a series of “phoenix” company names were used to keep the scam going between 2013 and 2016, so that when one had to be shut down another identical operation would spring up. One couple’s battle with Crestons “coincided with getting married and having to deal with matters while on their honeymoon”, Mr Heller said.

An online review called it “the worst agent in London” and the agents “bullies” who “used threats of eviction and intimidation”. 

Mashuk, from Barking, Ali, from Southall, and Syed, of King’s Cross, were all convicted of fraudulent trading after a trial. They will also face confiscation proceedings to recover the money. 

Officer treated for suspected neck injury after police car crash

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):::

A police officer has been taken to hospital with a suspected neck injury following a car crash in Bath.

It happened at about 01:50 GMT at the junction between Frome Road and Bloomfield Road, Avon and Somerset Police said.

The officer was at the wheel and responding to a call out at the time, the force said. He was taken to hospital by ambulance as a precaution.

Nobody else is believed to have been injured and it gave no further details.

Man charged with flying drone near airport

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::

A man has been charged with flying a drone near Heathrow Airport on 24 December.

George Rusu is accused of using a drone on a field near the runway just days after a scare at Gatwick grounded more than 1,000 flights.

He has been charged with flying a "small unmanned aircraft without permission of air traffic control".

Mr Rusu, 38, from Hillingdon, will appear at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The alleged incident happened just three days after Gatwick Airport fully reopened on December 21, following three days of chaos affecting about 140,000 passengers.

Gosport hospital deaths: Evidence 'strong enough to bring charges'

Pic--1::Dr Barton was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2010 but no prosecutions were brought/wp-bbc

Pic--2::Inquests into the deaths of 10 patients, six of whom are pictured, were held in 2009

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::
There is "strong" evidence to bring criminal charges after the deaths of hundreds of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, the detective who led an investigation believes.

An inquiry in June last year found more than 450 patients died after being given "dangerous" levels of drugs.

Dr Jane Barton, the GP at the centre of the scandal, prescribed strong opioid painkillers to elderly patients.

Hampshire Constabulary previously investigated the hospital three times.

No charges have ever been brought.

Many patients who died had been sent to the hospital to recover from operations.

Former Assistant Chief Constable Steve Watts, who led the third and largest investigation into 94 deaths, told BBC Panorama he believes the evidence was enough to take the case to court.

"I think it's strong enough now, I think it was strong enough then, and I think there was an overriding public interest in doing so," he said.

During the investigations, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) looked at possible charges of manslaughter and murder in relation to Dr Barton and some nurses who administered the drugs.

However, prosecutors decided there was not a reasonable chance of securing convictions.

Mr Watts said: "I knew what the response of the families was going to be, I knew what the response of the public was going to be and I recall talking to the prosecutors and saying that this will end up in a public inquiry and eventually I think the matter will go before a court."

Police in Hampshire handed the case over to their colleagues in Kent and Essex who are now reviewing the evidence to decide if a fourth police investigation is necessary.

BBC Panorama has examined witness statements given to the earlier police investigations by nurses working inside the hospital.

They told police they thought diamorphine, delivered continuously to patients by a syringe driver, did shorten patients' lives.

One auxiliary nurse said: "It got to the stage that every time Dr Barton came to the annexe, I would think to myself who's going to die now?"

In another statement, a staff nurse said: "It seemed that most patients were going on drivers even when they were not in pain."

Another nurse said they believed the drug was used "to keep the waiting lists down".

However, former nurse Sheelagh Joines, who was sister on Gosport's Daedalus Ward between 1993 and 1997, disagreed.

"As far as I am concerned Dr Barton didn't shorten any lives on my ward," she said.

"They were nursed to the best of my ability and they had what every patient is entitled to - peaceful, pain-free, dignity - and I mean dignified death."

She added at one stage the ward felt like a "dumping ground".

"They were sent to us and we were hoping we could rehabilitate them which we tried.

"But it soon became apparent they were nursing care, and they had damn good nursing care, but they weren't rehabilitation."

• New police probe into hospital deaths
• Gosport: The numbers behind the scandal
• Jane Barton, the doctor who shortened lives

Dr Barton, who declined to comment, was disciplined by the General Medical Council in 2010 for serious professional misconduct, but she was not struck off and retired soon after.

She said the consultants in charge knew what she was doing and that she was doing her best in an inadequately resourced part of the health service.

Dr Barton also said she was under unreasonable and increasing pressure and patients were too poorly for rehabilitation.

Labour says Britain's only options are second Brexit referendum or close EU ties

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::

Britain’s only options are a second Brexit referendum or forging a close economic relationship with the European Union, the main opposition Labour Party said on Sunday.

Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, told the BBC he was open to extending Article 50 if that meant Britain avoided leaving the EU without a deal.

Prime Minister Theresa May returns to parliament on Monday to make a statement on how she will proceed with Britain’s departure from the European Union after her deal was defeated by lawmakers last week.

Prince Philip warned by police over seat belt, two days after crash

Royal correspondent(wp/reuters):::

Queen Elizabeth’s 97-year-old husband Prince Philip received a warning from police after he was photographed apparently driving without a seat belt, just two days after he was involved in a crash while at the wheel.

Newspapers showed pictures of Philip driving a replacement Land Rover on Saturday at the royals’ Sandringham residence in Norfolk. He did not appear to be using a seat belt while travelling on a public road.

“We are aware of the photographs,” a police spokesman said. “Suitable words of advice have been given to the driver and this is in line with our standard response when being made aware of our receiving such images showing this type of offence.”

On Thursday, Philip escaped without injury when his car flipped over following a crash with another vehicle close to Sandringham.

Philip was unhurt, although shaken in the crash. The other driver, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts to her knee and a 45-year-old woman passenger in the car, which also had a nine-month-old baby on board, sustained a broken wrist. They were taken to hospital but later released.

A spokeswoman for Philip, asked about Saturday’s incident, said: “It’s a matter for Norfolk police.”

Philip has developed a reputation for brusque comments and often headline-grabbing verbal gaffes.

Do not hijack Brexit, minister warns Britain's parliament

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::
Parliament cannot be allowed to hijack Brexit, Trade Minister Liam Fox said on Sunday, in a warning to lawmakers who want to take more control over Britain’s departure from the European Union.

With just weeks to go before Britain is due to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May will return to parliament on Monday to set out how she plans to try to break the Brexit deadlock after her deal was rejected by lawmakers last week.

She will also speak to ministers on Sunday on a conference call, a government source said, as the prime minister tries to navigate a way through the competing visions for the future from a second referendum to staying in the EU.

Time is running out for Brexit, Britain’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, but so far there is little that unites a divided parliament beyond its rejection of May’s deal that envisages close economic ties with the EU.

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party is pressing for a new election and for May to rule out the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, while others in parliament are lobbying for anything from a second referendum to leaving without an agreement.

Fox, a Brexit supporter, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that May’s divorce agreement with the EU was still the best basis for a deal and warned lawmakers against trying to take more control of Britain’s departure.

“Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process because parliament said to the people of this country: ‘we make a contract with you, you will make the decision and we will honour it’,” Fox said.

“What we are now getting are some of those who were always absolutely opposed to the result of the referendum trying to hijack Brexit and in effect steal the result from the people.”

Britain voted with a 52 percent majority to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum that exposed deep divisions across the country, divisions that still split cities and towns, and the country’s parliament, almost three years on.

DEADLOCK

After seeing her deal rejected by more than 200 lawmakers last week, May has opened talks with other parties to try to find a way to break the deadlock.

But with Labour refusing to take part until May rules out leaving without a deal, some lawmakers fear those talks will change little and instead have said they will launch attempts next week to force the government to change course.

Several are trying to make sure Britain does not “accidentally” leave without a deal on March 29, a scenario some businesses say would be catastrophic for the economy.

“What happens when you have a hung parliament is that power does pass from government ... to parliament and that’s what we are seeing play out,” Nicky Morgan, a Conservative former minister, told Sky News.

She said she was backing a bill that would force the government to extend Article 50, which triggered Britain’s two-year talks to leave the EU, if it cannot get an agreement approved by parliament by the end of February.

Dominic Grieve, another Conservative lawmaker, is also looking at ways to stop Britain from leaving without a deal.

With much of the focus now on Labour, its Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said there was now only really two options that could find majority support - a future close economic relationship with the EU or a second referendum - and that it was increasingly inevitable that Article 50 would be extended.

“We’ve arrived at phase three and therefore we need to be realistic about what the options are,” Starmer told the BBC.

“Let’s ... reduce it to the options that are at least capable of getting a majority and that is a close economic relationship and a public vote.”