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Thursday, July 1, 2010

A court in England, UK has jailed a policeman for ten months after he was convicted of defrauding his car insurance company.

Police Constable Simon Hood, 43, arranged for a friend who dealt in scrap metal to dispose of his Audi TT, then claimed it had been stolen.

Hood had been disappointed with the car’s value when he tried to sell it two years after its purchase in 2008. He arranged for friend Peter Marsh, 41, to drive the vehicle to his scrapyard in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Marsh then dismantled the vehicle with the intent of disposing of it, but parts were later found wrapped in bubblewrap at Ace Tyre and Exhaust Centre.

Marsh picked up the TT from outside nearby Gorleston police station. Records show mobile phone conversations between the conspirators that day in March, both before and after the vehicle was reported stolen. The pair denied wrongdoing but were convicted of conspiring to commit insurance fraud after trial.

The fraud was uncovered after Hood told former girlfriend Suzanne Coates of the scheme. It was alleged before Norwich Crown Court that he had confessed to her in an effort to resume their relationship. Coates said that after the pseudotheft, Hood told her “he didn’t want to look for it. He said it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, which I thought was a bit strange.”

Shortly afterwards Hood suggested they should become a couple once more, she said; she challenged his version of events regarding the car: “He said he did it but I couldn’t tell anyone. He said he did it with Peter. Peter had a key and took the car away and it was going to be taken to bits and got rid of so it was never found.”

Hood was defended by Michael Clare and Marsh by Richard Potts. Both lawyers told the court that their clients had already suffered as a result of the action in mitigation before sentencing. Clare said Hood had resigned from the police after fifteen years of otherwise good service and risked losing his pension. “It is not a case where his position as a police officer was used in order to facilitate the fraud,” he pointed out. “His career is in ruins.” Hood is now pursuing a career in plumbing.

Potts defended Marsh by saying that he, too, had already suffered from his actions. His own insurers are refusing to renew their contract with him when it expires and his bank withdrew its overdraft facility. His business employs 21 people and Potts cited Marsh’s sponsorship of Great Yarmouth In Bloom as amongst evidence he supported his local community.

Judge Alasdair Darroch told Marsh that he did accept the man was attempting to help his friend. He sentenced Marsh to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 250 hours of community service. He was more critical of Hood:

“As a police officer you know the highest possible standards are demanded by the public. You have let down the force. You knew throughout your career that policemen that get involved in serious dishonesty get sent to prison.”

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Wikinews extended invitations by e-mail on March 23 to multiple candidates running in the Texas’ 6th congressional district special election of May 1 to fill a vacancy left upon the death of Republican congressman Ron Wright. Of them, the office of Democrat Daryl Eddings, Sr. agreed to answer some questions by phone March 30 about their campaigns and policies. The following is the interview with Ms Chatham on behalf of Mr Eddings, Sr.

Eddings is a federal law enforcement officer and senior non-commissioned officer in the US military. His experience as operations officer of an aviation unit in the California National Guard includes working in Los Angeles to control riots sparked by the O. J. Simpson murder case and the police handling of Rodney King, working with drug interdiction teams in Panama and Central America and fighting in the Middle East. He is the founder of Operation Battle Buddy, which has under his leadership kept in touch with over 20 thousand veterans and their families. He was born in California, but moved to Midlothian, Texas. He endeavours to bring “good government, not no government”. Campaign manager Faith Chatham spoke to Wikinews on matters ranging from healthcare to housing.

An Inside Elections poll published on March 18 shows Republican candidate Susan Wright, the widow of Ron Wright, is ahead by 21% followed by Democrat Jana Sanchez with 17% and Republican Jake Ellzey with 8% with a 4.6% margin of error among 450 likely voters. The district is considered “lean Republican” by Inside Elections and voted 51% in favour of Donald Trump in last year’s US presidential election. This is down from 54% for Trump in 2016’s presidential election, the same poll stated.

Thursday, December 20, 2007File:Puss Get the Boot.jpg

Jack Zander, the animator whose career lasted from the “golden age” of theatrical animation into the 1980s, has died at the age of 99 on Monday, December 17.

Born in May of 1908, he helped animate the Tom and Jerry cartoons with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, including Puss Gets the Boot (1940), The Night Before Christmas (1941), Fine Feathered Friend (1942), and Sufferin’ Cats (1943).

Zander was nominated for an Outstanding Animated Program Emmy in 1981 for Gnomes, and in 1984 he won the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists’ Golden Award.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has launched an investigation into the Nine Network over comments by its football commentators regarding the government’s planned poker machine reform.

An ACMA statement yesterday read: “ACMA has confirmed that it is investigating a complaint that Channel Nine broadcast political material without adequately identifying it as such during the NRL first preliminary final”.

The comments, made during an NRL football match on September 23, saw Nine’s commentators Ray Warren and Phil Gould criticizing the reforms, labeling pokie reform as “rubbish”. Mr Gould added “I’ve never seen a more stupid policy in all my life.”

Networks are required to acknowledge political comment when broadcast as a condition of their licenses. “The identification of political material usually takes the form of a statement following the material advising on whose behalf the material had been broadcast”, the ACMA statement noted.

Proposed reforms to poker machines will see gamblers forced to pre-commit to a limit on their losses, or instead use low-intensity poker machines with $1 bets.

Shelly Bates, Nine Network’s compliance manager, claimed, as reported by ABC’s Media Watch, “The comments relating to the Federal Government proposed poker machine tax were purely the opinions of the commentators regarding matters directly affecting the NRL community”. Mr Warren previously told Austereo’s Triple M that the comments were “a directive from up top … [to] be read by at least somebody” adding, “I think it was done on behalf of the [National] Rugby League, who is fully supportive of the clubs.”

On Monday, independents in the Australian Parliament Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon wrote to David Gyngell, chief executive of the Nine Network, accusing the network of “attempting to mislead (and alarm) viewers”, and of breaching the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, the Broadcasting Services Act, and the Electoral Act. Nine responded with a statement yesterday, “The Nine Network will be providing Messrs Wilkie and Xenophon with a detailed and considered response on the issues they have raised, and we are confident we are not in breach of any code provisions.”

If ACMA rules Nine in breach of its license conditions the watchdog may impose a fine or further license conditions, demand action to prevent further breaches, or even suspend or cancel the network’s license.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Bicycle sales in Australia have recorded record sales of 1,273,781 units for 2006, exceeding car sales by 32 percent. It is the fifth year in a row that the bicycle industry has sold more than one million units, a figure yet to be realised by car manufacturers.

The Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF) spokesman Ian Christie said Australians were increasingly using bicycles as an alternative to cars. Sales rose nine percent in 2006 while the car market stalled. Mr Christie said people were looking to cut their fuel costs and improve their fitness.

Mr Christie said organisations were beginning to supply bicycles as a company vehicle. “There is an emerging trend towards people using bikes as their official company-supplied vehicle in place of the traditional company car,” he said.

“Some of Australia’s biggest corporations now have bicycle fleets, and when you add in government organisations, we now know of at least 50 organisations which operate fleets of bikes.”

“Although the company bicycle is a long way from taking over from the company car, it’s an important trend when you consider that nearly half of all cars sold are to company fleets.”

The CPF claims most commutes to work are less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) making bicycle travel a viable alternative.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The contaminated pet food that was recalled after it was found to contain a harmful industrial chemical called melamine, has been used as pig feed at a hog farm in Ceres, California, located in the United States.

At least seven urine samples taken from pigs at the American Hog Farm, were tested and the results came back positive for the chemical melamine. At least three samples from the feed used to feed the pigs were tested and those results also came back positive for melamine.

Reports say that at least 100 pigs from the farm were slaughtered and sold from the “custom slaughterhouse” that is operated on the farms site. The meat is then sold to different places as “individual orders” and is not sold commercially for supermarkets. The affected meat goes as far back as April 3 and the company is asking anyone who bought it to return the product or throw it out.

Despite the sale, California State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer says that no evidence has turned up to suggest that the meat that was sold entered the human consumption chain.

“There is no evidence that any products from this farm have entered the food supply. The risk to people right now is minimal,” said Breitmeyer who also said that pet food from bags or boxes that have been torn or ripped, is sometimes reused as feed for small farms.

California’s Department of Food and Agriculture investigated the company and found that it had received the contaminated pet food from Diamond Pet Foods, which supplies retailers with the pet food Natural Balance, one of the over 100 recalled brands of pet food. Authorities then quarantined the farm to further investigate the situation.

At least 1,500 pigs are on the farm.

As of the moment, no other farms are being investigated, but officials say that other farms may also be affected.

“In the course of our investigation, we may find similar situations in other parts of the country,” said head of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Sundlof.

The FDA is continuing to investigate and Sundlof says that there is a possibility that the contamination of the pet food may be intentional.

“It would certainly lend credibility to the theory that it may be intentional. That will be one of the theories we will pursue when we get into the plants in China,” said Sundlof.

Last month, Menu Foods was the first to recall all of its 60 million products of dry and wet dog and cat food after pets began to fall ill and in some cases died of kidney failure. The FDA found melamine in samples of Menu Foods pet food and in samples of wheat gluten, imported from China, which was used as an ingredient.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Gary Foster, a British cancer patient, has died after a hospital computer error. The twenty-seven-year-old was undergoing a trial at the University College London Hospital when an apparent computer system error led to him repeatedly receiving double the amount of chemotherapy needed.

Foster had been treated for testicular cancer since June. He had improved temporarily after the overdose but died due to drug toxicity. Another patient suffered an overdose during the trial but survived.

Gary Foster was engaged, with wedding plans this month. He had been working as a graphic designer when he was diagnosed with cancer and a sixty percent survival rate. According to his fiancée, Paula Collins, the couple had been relieved to be included in drug trials as they had been told his chances of survival would increase. He had slowly received the overdoses over a period of four months. His mother said he had been “slowly poisoned.”

University College London Hospital reviewed its procedures and has made sufficient changes for future patient safety. The lesson it has learned, hospital officials stated, was to include “a second separate check by senior pharmacy staff … for every patient before repeated doses are given.” Suspected overdoses were reported through written letters, which hospital staff left unopened for two days.

While a coroner’s report is in progress, investigators said the drug had not directly caused Foster’s death despite his health deteriorating after the overdoses began.