November 2011 Archives

Discussion about the phone-hacking scandal continues unabated through the Leveson Inquiry and recent witness Paul McMullan, former deputy features editor of the News of the World, has given evidence that many will no doubt find shocking, upsetting and even outrageous.

In defending the measures used by the newspaper, Mr McMullan claimed: "In 21 years of invading peoples' privacy I've never actually come across anyone who's been doing any good.

"Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in. Privacy is for paedos. Privacy is evil; it brings out the worst qualities in people."

Birmingham City Council has lost an appeal to prevent 174 female former-employees from taking their equal-pay claim to the High Court, which may result in the council paying out millions of pounds in compensation.

While equal-pay claims are normally heard at employment tribunals and can only take place within six months of the employee leaving their job, the High Court allows employment cases to be heard up to six years after the employment has ended.

This has allowed the 174 women to bring their claim for back pay, which runs to about £3 million, and potentially opens the gates for thousands of other female former-employees to make claims.

In what is thought to be the "biggest action since the 1926 general strike", millions of public sector workers plan to strike tomorrow, Wednesday 30 November, after an agreement about pensions could not be reached with the Government.

The industrial action, occurring nationwide, are to be co-ordinated by the Trade Union Congress and will involve around 50 branches of 30 unions, seven of which are not affiliated with the TUC. The unions will represent 2.6 million workers from different public sector industries including hospital workers and teachers.

The recently proposed changes to pensions such as extending the state pension age, forcing workers to pay more from their salaries into their pensions, making them work longer hours and forcing them to accept pensions based on "career average salaries" rather than final salaries, are the reasons behind the strike action.

Despite unpaid internships being a topic of contention for the past few years, with several cases of interns suing for lack of payment in various industries, it seems that MPs are guilty of regularly taking on interns for long periods without paying them and therefore breaking minimum wage laws.

The House of Commons website Work for MP shows that there have been 260 unpaid internships offered since the election, some lasting as long as 10 months without even providing expenses.

National minimum wage must be paid to anyone who is classed as a 'worker'. According to legal advice provided internally to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ministers, "most interns are likely to be workers, and therefore entitled to the NMW."

Television personality Michael Barrymore has been charged with being in possession of drugs and being drunk and disorderly after he was involved in a car accident last week.

On Tuesday 22 November at 4.30am, Barrymore was arrested, under his real name of Michael Parker, with another man in his 30s after their car, a Citroen DS3, hit a kerb in West London.

A source said: "The car had collided with the kerb just off the main road.

As part of a youth rehabilitation scheme, a 16-year-old burglar was made to write a letter of apology to his victim, but instead of saying sorry he mocked them and listed the reasons why their home had been an easy target.

The young offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was involved with the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP). This scheme is a non-custodial intervention for young offenders and means that they can be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They must also take part in activities aimed at rehabilitation, education and preventing repeat offending.

However, the young burglar from West Yorkshire was reluctant to apologise to his victim, and wrote the letter under duress. Read the letter here, if you can make sense of the terrible spelling and grammar.

Since the abolishment of the Default Retirement Age in October this year, employees are now allowed to remain at work beyond what was previously considered retirement age. And with the current times of austerity, many people will feel forced to take advantage of this and will continue working well into their 70s and even 80s.

Recent research carried out by insurance and pensions company Liverpool Victoria shows that over a quarter of over-50s believe they will find themselves working an average of six years beyond retirement age since they will not be able to afford to stop working.

The state pension age is currently 65, and is planned to increase over the next few years, meaning that many people will be aged at least 71 before they can afford to retire. Some who took part in the survey thought they would be working for as much as 15 years beyond retirement age and could be in their 80s by the time they stop working.

Operation Hawk, a crackdown on drug crime across London's 32 boroughs, is taking place in London today (24 November). The idea was conceived by recently-appointed Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe.

In just one day, hundreds of raids on suspected criminals' houses are being carried out by some 4,000 'Safer Neighbourhood' officers, PCSOs and specialist officers.

The operation is based on a similar one carried out by Mr Hogan-Howe when he was chief of Merseyside police and relies on members of the public to provide the police with information about local crime.

Liverpool Victoria Insurance conducted research into the frequency of car crime around the country. It found that more than half of all UK motorists have at some point been a victim of vehicle vandalism, and these crimes usually occur when the car is parked outside the owner's home.

In the past 12 months, one in ten motorists had their car vandalised, which cost them around £953 million worth of damage. This amounted to roughly £260 per person.

While 54% of all UK motorists cars have been damaged at some point, an unlucky 25% of drivers' cars had been vandalised twice and a really unfortunate 10% had been the victims of car vandalism three or four times.

Lynx toiletries for men are often advertised on the premise that men who use the products will become more attractive to women. However, six adverts released in the summer of 2011 caused complaints for their sexually suggestive nature.

Advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority received over 100 complaints about the adverts for being demeaning to women, sexually suggestive and on public display where children could see them.

The advertising campaign consisted of posters, TV and internet adverts. The posters showed a bikini-clad woman under a shower on a beach and had a tagline reading, "The cleaner you are the dirtier you get."

This week, consumer minister Ed Davey announced a series of plans to reform and improve consumer credit and personal insolvency. This included high street shops signing a voluntary deal to stop offering discounts to customers in return for store cards.

Currently, around 13 million people in Britain have store cards, which they are tempted into signing up to by introductory discounts on purchases and instant credit. Interest rates on these cards are often sky-high: around 60 times the Bank of England base rate, meaning that consumers quickly find themselves in debt.

Mr Davey said that he was "concerned about customers being tempted" by the discounts offered in return for store cards and so from April next year, retailers will no longer be allowed to offer discounts and free gifts within the first seven days of a store-card account being opened.

The Government has published a report into absences from work due to sickness in both the private and public sector. The report outlines recommendations to help reduce the amount of sickness-absences and in turn to reduce the yearly cost to taxpayers of £13billion.

Measures recommended in the report include offering tax breaks to firms who employ or take on people with long-term illnesses.

Also, rather than employees' GPs authorising their long-term absence from work due to sickness, the report recommends that an independent panel should review the employee's capability for work.

A con-artist who claimed to be a legitimate 'vehicle immobiliser' was found guilty of blackmail and fraud at Manchester Crown Court after committing crimes that were "a form of piracy".

Mohammed Asif Ashraf, 31, ran two unlicensed clamping companies, Clamp You and Unauthorised Clamping Solutions in 2009. He targeted quiet backstreets in Manchester city centre and employed people to seek out potential victims.

He clamped at least 50 cars and told the owners to pay £150 for their release or they would be towed. He told his victims a further fine of £400, not including storage fees, would be charged.

Students and staff at the University of California, Davis, were sprayed in the face with pepper spray by campus police officers as they held a peaceful demonstration in support of the Occupy Wall Street anti-capitalist protests.

The protesters had formed a line by linking arms and were sitting on the floor refusing to move when the university's chancellor called the police to disburse them.

The police reacted by using pepper spray on the protesters, emptying canisters of the chemical spray into their faces at close-range.

Last week the Education Act 2011 was granted Royal Assent. The new legislation covers many different aspects of education from discipline to post-16 education, teacher training and the closing and opening of schools.

The Education Secretary now has the power to close down a school that is perceived to be failing without having to consult with local authorities first. This power, says the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers, is a "crime against humanity, a smash and grab raid that will tear apart our communities".

Patrick Roach, deputy general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "We must not fall into traps that have been set for us. We need to reclaim progressive values within our schools and classrooms."

Everyone has family heirlooms and knickknacks that have been knocking around for so long that no one remembers where they came from and who they belong to, but when those items are found to be worth lots of money, suddenly memories of ownership come flooding back.

This was the case for Andrea Calland and her ex-mother-in-law Evelyn Galloway. Ms Calland sold an "ugly" vase at an auction in 2009 for £228,000 but, following a two-year legal battle, has been forced to hand over the money to Mrs Galloway, the rightful owner.

Ms Calland believed that she had either found the vase during her student days or been given it by her father. She then claimed that even if the vase had originally come from Mrs Galloway, she had abandoned it by not showing any interest for 18 years.

After a "fleeting affair" with Hugh Grant earlier this year, Tinglan Hong, a Chinese actress, gave birth to a baby girl and has since been hounded by paparazzi. She was granted an anti-harassment injunction last Friday 11 November.

Mr Justice Tugendhat today claimed that he granted the injunction because Ms Hong "cannot leave her home without being followed and there are constantly photographers waiting outside her home".

Ms Hong, who never wanted to be in the limelight, claimed that "since the birth of her child [in September] her life has become unbearable".

Working in the financial sector usually means long hours, targets to be met and, increasingly these days, a lack of job security. It's no wonder then that workers in the industry are making more claims for lost earnings through stress than ever before.

London-based law firm GQ Employment Law have reported receiving considerably more stress-related legal claims in 2011 than in 2010.

Jon Gilligan, partner at GQ Employment, said: "The incredibly tough trading conditions and volatility of the last four years has led to record levels of stress and mental illness within the City.

In the Nottinghamshire village of Gamston, the Union Jack flag is flown all year round after a majority vote from the locals felt that it should be so. However, one man complained about the flag and has since received threatening letters.

Roger Henry feels that the Union Jack has become a symbol for racist, far-right political supporters and he did not want to see the flag flown year-round in the village.

After complaining to the local council, he received a letter telling him to "go back to your own country" and saying "we hope you get killed".

Not content with restricting a blanket ban on smoking to public areas such as restaurants and pubs, a leading doctors' union now wants the Government to introduce a smoking ban in privately-owned cars to protect vulnerable people from second-hand smoke.

The British Medical Association (BMA) believes that the Government should make a "bold and courageous step" by extending the current smoking laws to include cars.

The BMA claim that people are exposed to 23 times more toxins through inhaling second-hand smoke in cars than used to be found in pubs and that children and elderly people who are passengers are especially at risk.

Despite a law being introduced in April this year that bans under 18s from using sunbeds, nearly half of 25 salons visited in a test purchase operation in West Yorkshire allowed a 14-year-old girl to use their tanning services.

Under the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010, anyone who owns a sunbed business that allows an under-18 to use a sunbed is committing an offence and is liable to pay a fine of up to £20,000.

Trading Standards officers in West Yorkshire set up a test purchase operation to ensure that businesses are complying with the new legislation. Along with environmental health officers, they visited 25 tanning businesses in the area.

The Citizens Advice Bureau, an independent national charity that provides free legal, consumer and financial advice, has warned the Government that legal aid cuts will result in more people taking their grievances to employment tribunals.

While the Government aims to save taxpayers' money by resolving disputes before they come to court, the CAB predicts legal aid cuts will have the opposite effect since it will no longer be able to provide people with free advice and assistance.

The CAB supports the Government's pledge to protect vulnerable workers from exploitative employers, but claims that it is "meaningless" to promise this while simultaneously removing access to legal aid.

The second most senior judge in England and Wales has voiced his support for adhering to the section of the Equality Act which would give priority to women and ethnic minorities when top law job appointments are made.

Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury believes that when two applicants for a role are equally matched, preference should be given to women or ethnic minorities over white men.

He said that he had "no difficulty" with applying section 159 of the Equality Act to the senior judiciary, which would allow "positive" or "affirmative" action in relation to recruitment in England, Wales and Scotland.

The family of a disabled man who was beaten to death are attempting to prevent the killer from receiving NHS-funded gender reassignment surgery by starting a campaign.

Jim White's brother Clive was beaten to death with an axe and a hammer in 2000 by his neighbour Robert Page.

Now that Mr Page, who goes by the name of Emma, is to undergo a sex change while in prison, Mr White claims that taxpayers should not have to pay for the treatment.

A man who owned his own haulage business was jailed after being caught driving long hours without taking the regulation amount of breaks, and therefore endangering lives.

Andrew Clorley, from Penley near Wrexham, admitted tampering with the tachograph, which records the number of hours driven, by swapping the sheet in the machine for another under the name of his ex-employee, Eric Groves.

However, the Vehicle and operator Services Agency (VOSA) discovered that Mr Groves no longer worked for Mr Clorley, and was out of the country, at the time that Mr Clorley committed the offences.

Large retail companies that have operations based in the Channel Islands will no longer benefit from relief from VAT on products costing less than £15, meaning they will not be able to sell cheaply on the mainland in future.

Internet retailers such as Amazon, Play.com, Moonpig , HMV and Tesco have distribution warehouses in the Channel Islands. This enables them to take advantage of the tax relief and sell their products far more cheaply than smaller competitors.

However, since the number of companies distributing goods from the Channel Islands increased "dramatically", the relief now costs the Government around £140 million a year.

A former partner in the law firm which represented Princess Diana during her divorce has been accused of helping two men defraud Swiss bank EFG of £18 million.

Kevin Steele, who was once the director of Queens Park Rangers and a partner in law firm Mischon de Reya, allegedly helped conmen Michael Shepherd and Mark Pattinson trick the Swiss bank into paying out the loan.

Mr Shepherd claimed to be a wealthy businessman who was the sole beneficiary of £76.4 million held in two accounts at the Guernsey branch of another Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer.

A couple who split up nearly 20 years ago have finally had their property dispute settled at the Supreme Court, with the ruling being made in the woman's favour.

Patricia Jones and her ex-partner Leonard Kernott had bought a house together in 1985 in joint names and with a joint mortgage.

The couple lived there for eight years before they separated. Then Mr Kernott moved out and left Ms Jones to pay the mortgage and upkeep of the house, as well as looking after their two children.

In a recent case concerning clerical sexual abuse, a high court judge has paved the way for the Catholic Church to take legal responsibility for the actions of their priests, in the same way as a company would for its employees.

The ruling means that in future, victims of sexual abuse by clergy members will find it easier to bring claims against the Church as a whole.

A woman, known as JGE, claimed to have been sexually abused when she was six years old by a priest, Father Wilfred Baldwin, who regularly visited the children's home where she lived in Portsmouth.

Dr Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal doctor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter yesterday (7 November) in a unanimous decision from the jury.

Following the popstar's death in 2009, Dr Murray was accused of gross negligence for administering medicine at Jackson's home that should only be given in hospital, for not calling the emergency services promptly and for not telling the paramedics he had administered drugs.

Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 after receiving a fatal dose of propofol, an anaesthetic.

Although you are free to take industrial action without the courts being able to force you to return to, or stay at, work, you will probably be in breach of your employment contract in doing so. This means you will probably be sacrificing your pay and, depending on the circumstances of the strike, you may face dismissal. Therefore, if you are thinking about joining your colleagues on a strike, you should seek advice on your employment rights before doing so.

What are the implications of taking part in protected or unprotected industrial action?

If you intend to join in with a strike that is official action organised by your trade union in accordance with the law, then it will usually constitute 'protected industrial action', meaning that you will probably be protected from being dismissed as a result of it.

In the last few months, the UK Border Agency has been stepping up its measures to seize class A drugs as they enter the country.

Between April and September this year, more heroin and cocaine was seized than in the whole of 2010.

The UKBA claim that through better intelligence, new screening techniques and improved communications between agencies, they have found 2, 116kg of cocaine and 773kg of heroin at UK ports and airports.

A High Court judge has awarded an illegal immigrant over £17,000 in damages after he successfully claimed that he had been unlawfully imprisoned by the Home Office.

Judge Stephen Stewart QC ruled that Joseph Mjemer had been unlawfully held by the Home Office under "administrative custody" while they attempted to discover his nationality in order to deport him.

Mr Mjemer entered the UK illegally by boat in 2003 and claimed asylum. During the next few years, Mr Mjemer was convicted for more than 20 offences including dangerous driving, property damage and trying to obtain property by deception.

The law regulates how, when and by whom fireworks can be sold and used. Under the relevant law, such as the Fireworks Regulations 2004, there are a number of limitations imposed on the use of fireworks.

It is an offence for anyone under 18 to buy fireworks that can only be sold to adults, and to possess fireworks in public places. If someone under 18 is caught with fireworks in a public place, the police can issue them with a fixed penalty notice, usually an on-the-spot fine of £80. It is also an offence for someone to possess professional display fireworks, unless they are a firework professional.

With regard to how and when fireworks can be used, it is illegal to set them off in a public place or on the street; or to set them off anywhere between 11pm and 7am. There are some exceptions to this rule; for example, displays can continue until midnight on 5 November and until 1am on some other occasions, such as New Years Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year. These offences are punishable by either an on the-spot fine of £80; or a fine up to £5,000 and/or imprisonment up to three months.

An American woman, who impersonated her ex-boyfriend on Facebook, can be tried for identity theft, a New Jersey judge said this week.

Dana Thornton created a Facebook page pretending to be her ex-boyfriend, a policeman in New Jersey, USA. She used the account to post offensive comments about him.

Ms Thornton allegedly wrote that her ex-boyfriend, a narcotics detective, was "high all the time". She claimed that he regularly used escort services and prostitutes and that he had herpes.

A Bradford judge has called for the introduction of a 'three strikes and you're out' policy that would send dangerous drivers straight to prison after committing the same offence three times.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made these proposals after he heard the case of James Mellor, 25, who had been caught dangerous driving for the fifth time. The judge remanded the offender in custody for one week while he decided whether to give the man a community sentence or to send him to jail.

Judge Durham Hall claimed the case was difficult to sentence, saying: "Do I give him 300 hours' unpaid work and a long period of disqualification or do I give him 15 months?"

A senior police officer of Greater Manchester Police has announced his support for decriminalising brothels in an attempt to solve the problems related to prostitution.

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne, soon to be assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, believes that the laws concerning prostitution must change to help the women involved and also the neighbourhoods which suffer as a result of brothels.

Mr Byrne, writing on the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) blog, claimed that while decriminalising and regulating brothels is "no perfect solution", it had been successful in other countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Hugo Jose Sanchez, also known as Alfredo, has been arrested in Australia for fraud after faking his own death and fraudulently claiming £1.25 million in insurance with the help of his wife Sophie.

Mrs Sanchez had informed her husband's employers, HMV, that he had died and been cremated while on a holiday to South America in 2005.

Ecuador-born Mr Sanchez worked as a web developer for HMV, based in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. His employers became suspicious when Mr Sanchez's staff card was allegedly used several times after his death had been reported.

Julian Assange, the founder of secret-revealing website WikiLeaks, has lost his appeal to stop his extradition from the UK to Sweden over rape allegations.

Last year, the Australian internet activist was accused of molestation of one woman and the rape of another in Stockholm. He denied the charges and has since been fighting to remain in the UK, claiming it unfair and unlawful to extradite him.

Now his legal team have said they will decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court within the next 14 days. Currently, Mr Assange is on bail, staying at a supporter's country estate.

Following reports from GCHQ, Britain's biggest intelligence agency, that cyber attacks on the UK have reached "disturbing" levels, Foreign Secretary William Hague called for a two-day cyberspace summit including representatives from 60 nations to take place in London.

The summit, while also discussing the threat of cyber attacks on an international scale, also addressed the increasing amount of cyber crime that affects individuals, estimated to cost the UK as a whole around £27 billion a year.

In the Prime Minister's speech at the summit, Mr Cameron claimed that "it costs just 69p - about the price of a song on iTunes - to buy someone's credit card information online."

Following the recent implementation of the new Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), employers in the food retail industry have been trying to use a legal loophole to save money by paying their temporary workers less.

Morrisons, following the lead of Tesco, confirmed it has "held discussions" with its recruiters about using the 'Swedish derogation' model to cope with the AWR, stating this is a "legitimate option for temporary employees".

The AWR, which came into effect in October, afforded agency workers the same rights to pay and working conditions as permanent staff. It was designed to offer temporary workers more protection.

For the past two weeks a host of anti-capitalist protesters have set up camp outside St Paul's Cathedral in London, causing problems for the cathedral and its clergy.

The cathedral and the City of London Corporation have finally decided to bring legal action against the protesters. Separately, they intend to seek High Court injunctions for the removal of the protesters.

The protest, Occupy London, began on 15 October in solidarity with similar protests taking place in New York, USA. The protest is a peaceful demonstration against social injustice, economic inequality, corporate greed, the lack of affordable housing in the UK and many other issues.