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Judge Hone QC, sitting in the Old Bailey, sentenced a conman who made millions selling fake bomb detectors based on a novelty product to ten years’ imprisonment for fraud. Thousands of the useless devices were sold to the Iraqi army where they were used at checkpoints to check for explosives. They were also bought by other military and police forces including UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. In his sentencing remarks the judge said:
“Your fraudulent conduct in selling so many useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent individuals.”
“Although I have paid attention to the Sentencing Guideline, your case is far outside any of parameters set out and neither the starting points nor the sentencing ranges are adequate for your case… In terms of culpability and harm, I have been unable to imagine a more serious case of its kind.”
The UK Association of Fish Producer Organisations applied to the High Court over government plans to allocate unused fishing quotas to small-scale fishermen. UKAFPO, which represents large-scale fishing companies, wants the Court to rule on whether the allocation of a quota confers a permanent right to fish yet to be caught. A Greenpeace spokesperson said:
“What the big crews are trying to do is get the court to rubberstamp the privatisation by stealth of a public good (fish) that has taken place over the last 30 years.”
The Met Police were ordered to pay undisclosed but “substantial” damages to a man who was wrongly identified in “wanted” posters following the London riots in 2011. The claimant was actually a housing officer helping people caught in the riots – including an elderly woman, a bus driver and people trapped in a building next to a burning car. Following his complaint at the time, Hackney Police accepted he had not committed any offence, but his photo then remained on the police website and in shop windows.
According to a survey by travel company Global Visas, 22% of British holidaymakers believe they are still under UK law when in foreign countries, and do not believe the laws of that country apply to them. 55% of those who believed this thought it was because they were British citizens, and 21% thought it was because they were “just visiting” the country.
