Category Archives: Crime

Banks need stricter controls to prevent romance fraud, says City regulator

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FCA cites study showing victims’ ‘red flags’ are often missed and calls for improved monitoring systems

The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed “red flags” that led to people losing huge sums of money.

The review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their “partner” in Iraq.

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Afghan man jailed for five years for TikTok threat to kill Nigel Farage

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Fayaz Khan, 26, was also sentenced at Southwark crown court for entering the UK illegally on a small boat

A man who threatened on TikTok to kill the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been jailed for five years.

Fayaz Khan, an Afghan national whose real name is believed to be Fayaz Husseini, made the threat last October in a video that Farage and a high court judge described as “pretty chilling”.

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Man jailed for at least 23 years for murdering Syrian boy in Huddersfield

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Alfie Franco, 20, stabbed Ahmad Al Ibrahim after taking ‘petty exception’ to teenager brushing past his girlfriend

A man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for murdering a teenage Syrian refugee after he brushed past his girlfriend in Huddersfield town centre.

Leeds crown court heard how Alfie Franco, 20, stabbed Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, shortly after Ibrahim brushed past Franco’s girlfriend in April. He was found guilty of murder on Thursday.

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People claim London crime is rising because it suits them, Met commander says

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Nigel Farage and right-wing commentators seek to portray capital as ‘lawless’ despite evidence to the contrary

Claims that London is becoming more dangerous despite the crime figures indicating otherwise are being made because it suits some people, a senior police commander has said.

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and right-wing commentators have increasingly sought to portray the capital as a “lawless” city from which high net-worth individuals are fleeing.

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Woman admits UK bitcoin fraud charges after ‘world’s largest’ crypto seizure

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Zhimin Qian pleads guilty after wallets with 61,000 bitcoins, currently worth over £5bn, seized from north London home

A woman has been convicted for her role in a multibillion-pound bitcoin fraud after what is thought to have been the world’s largest cryptocurrency seizure.

Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, 45, orchestrated a fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 that left 128,000 people out of pocket.

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‘I refuse to be defined by fascism’: daughter of murder victim speaks after death of neo-Nazi killer in prison

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After the man who killed her father is found dead in his cell, Maz Saleem reflects on living with loss and choosing not to hate

Neo-Nazi murderer and bomber Pavlo Lapshyn did not get to serve out the 40-year term of his sentence. He was found dead in his cell at Wakefield prison on Tuesday, 12 years after being jailed. The circumstances of his death have not yet been publicly confirmed.

The Ukrainian national was 37. He was convicted at the Old Bailey in October 2013 of murdering Muslim man Mohammed Saleem, 82, in April of that year.

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Cheryl Tweedy stalker jailed for a year after again breaching restraining order

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Convicted killer Daniel Bannister showed up at singer’s home for fourth time, leaving her ‘stunned’

A convicted killer who stalked Cheryl Tweedy has been jailed after turning up at the singer’s home for a fourth time.

Daniel Bannister, 50, who breached a restraining order after showing up at Tweedy’s rural home in June, had already spent time in prison for the same offence. At Reading crown court on Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to 12 months in jail after he admitted a single charge of breaching a restraining order. He was also handed a fresh restraining order not to contact Tweedy.

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Chinese carmakers told to improve locking devices for UK market

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UK insurers require critical modifications for sale in country with higher levels of car theft than China

British authorities may have certain concerns about the cyber-spying threat from vehicles made in China, but it turns out the country’s manufacturers have security worries of their own.

Insurers have told Chinese carmakers they need critical modifications for vehicles on British streets: namely, tougher locking devices to make them harder to steal.

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Jaguar Land Rover says cyber-attack has affected ‘some data’

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Carmaker has informed relevant regulators and ‘will contact anyone as appropriate’ as investigation progresses

The cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover has affected data held by the carmaker, it has said, as its factories in the UK and abroad face prolonged closure.

JLR, Britain’s biggest carmaker, said on Wednesday that in its investigations into the hack, which first emerged last week, it had now discovered data had been breached.

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Don’t log non-crime hate incidents, says head of police watchdog

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Andy Cooke says the cases take up little time for forces in England and Wales but create intense controversy

Police should no longer record or investigate non-crime hate incidents, the chief inspector of constabulary has said.

Sir Andy Cooke said handling the incidents took up a minuscule amount of time but drew vehement criticism.

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UK phone retailers lock shop doors while trading to tackle rising thefts

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Exclusive: Companies considering use of ‘kill switches’ to disable stolen devices after 967% increase in theft incidents

Mobile phone retailers are locking their doors during trading hours and considering using “kill switches” to disable stolen devices, as incidents of theft increase more than ninefold in some high streets due to organised crime.

VodafoneThree, which operates the largest retail network with 650 stores across the UK, has experienced a 967% increase in theft incidents in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024.

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Farage a ‘Putin-loving, free speech impostor’ says Democrat before Reform head’s US speech – UK politics live

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Jamie Raskin says Farage is ‘a Trump sycophant’ before UK politician addresses the House judiciary committee in Washington

Kemi Badenoch is probably hastily redrafting her PMQs script in the light of Angela Rayner’s statement about underpaying her stamp duty. She has got less than half an hour to craft the right questions. And she will probably want to ask about the economy, and hate speech laws, too.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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Companies face prosecution risk as new fraud law comes into force

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CPS hails ‘major step forward’ in crime prevention with potential for companies to receive unlimited fines

Companies could be prosecuted and face unlimited fines if they fail to prevent fraud that their firm profits from under a corporate offence coming into force on Monday.

Under the new “failure to prevent fraud” law, large companies can be held criminally liable where an “employee, agent, subsidiary or other ‘associated person’” commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation.

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Man who hid cameras in London home pleads guilty to string of sexual offences

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Chao Xu, of Greenwich, admits 24 offences against six women and police say there could be many more victims

A businessman who concealed cameras in his home and drugged women has pleaded guilty to a string of sexual offences, and police fear the full scale of his crimes may be “vast”.

Chao Xu, 33, pleaded guilty at a pre-trial hearing on Friday to 24 offences against six young women in London over three years, including rape, digital penetration, sexual assault, administering a substance with intent and voyeurism.

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Court orders seizure of counterfeit underwear seller’s £90m assets

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Ferrari and property owned by Arif Patel, tax fraudster who has been on the run since 2011, will be sold at auction

A self-styled clothing tycoon who sold counterfeit socks and pants while operating an extensive fraud ring will have all his UK assets seized after the Crown Prosecution Service won a court order to confiscate up to £90m worth of property and luxury cars.

Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, who has been on the run since 2011, will have homes and business premises he owned taken from him after a confiscation order granted by a judge at Chester crown court on Thursday.

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Dorset police investigate antisemitic hate crimes including swastika graffiti

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Officers step up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after teenage boy shot with air rifle

Dorset police have launched an investigation and stepped up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after a wave of antisemitic hate crimes in the seaside town.

Over the weekend, a teenage boy was shot with an air rifle and injured, and swastika graffiti appeared on buildings, police said.

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Iceland says it will pay customers £1 if they report a shoplifter

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Grocery chain employees will verify the incident and the reward will be adding to the shopper’s loyalty card

The grocery chain Iceland is offering customers who shop a thief a £1 reward on their loyalty card.

The frozen food specialist said that anyone who spots a suspected shoplifter in its stores should inform the nearest Iceland employee who will verify the incident before adding the reward to the individual’s loyalty card for immediate use.

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More countries added to UK’s ‘deport first’ scheme for foreign criminals

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Former justice secretaries criticise expansion of policy that they say allows perpetrators to go unpunished

Foreign criminals from 15 more countries face deportation before they have a chance to appeal in an expansion of the UK government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.

Ministers are extending the scheme, which applies in England and Wales and was restarted in 2023, to cover 23 countries including India, Bulgaria, Australia and Canada.

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Man who killed woman in ‘vicious and brutal attack’ in Suffolk jailed for life

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Victim’s family say Roy Barclay has given no explanation for what the judge called an ‘outburst of horrific violence’

A man who beat a woman to death in a “vicious and brutal attack” as she walked her dog, having previously been in prison for a similar assault on a man in his 80s, has been jailed for life.

Anita Rose, 57, was found grievously wounded on 24 July 2024 in Brantham, Suffolk, with her dog tied to her leg by its lead to stop it running off. Her attacker was Roy Barclay, 56, who had been living rough to escape capture.

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Social media ads promoting small boat crossings to UK to be banned

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Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities

Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.

The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.

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