Sunday 11 March 2012

Psychologist faked death after using benefits scam to pay for wife's breast job


A benefits cheat, Stephen Kellaway, who faked his own death to avoid prosecution after stealing thousands to pay for his wife's breast enlargement has been jailed.


The 54 year-old had illegally claimed more than £43,000 in housing benefits despite a vast property portfolio worth more than £1 million.
The psychologist, who also earned £100,000 a year from his counselling service, used the money to fund a breast enlargement for his third wife Nelli, 43.
The pair, who owned five properties throughout London, fraudulently claimed benefits while also sending their children to private school.
But when the father-of-two feared the authorities had uncovered the fraud he faked his own death during a family trip to Moscow to avoid jail and fled to Thailand.
Mrs Kellaway, who met her husband in 1997, claimed he died on a family trip to her native Russia where she underwent the cosmetic surgery.
She returned to Britain with a fake death certificate and an urn that was claimed to have contained his ashes.

The pair had planned to collect a £1.7 million life insurance payout but were forced to abandon their plan after benefit fraud officers from Hammersmith and Fulham council launched an investigation.
He was eventually tracked down to Bangkok airport, where he was living rough and living in fear of being deported after losing his job teaching English to schoolchildren.
He had used a false Irish passport of a deceased seven-year-old boy and was extradited back to London in December.
On Thursday Kellaway, formerly of Shepherds Bush, west London was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court to 32 months jail.
He had pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud and one of identity fraud at an earlier hearing. The total fraud amounted to more than £43,000 in what Judge Shani Barnes described as "cynical and selfish” scam.
“People such as yourself who criminally steal from (others) undermine that system and demolish its credibility,” she added.

Upon her return to Britain, Mrs Kellaway was arrested and in 2010 convicted of three counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.
She was handed a 24 week sentence suspended for 18-months after she told a judge her "abusive" husband had coerced her.
A spokesman for the council said last night: “You can run but you cannot hide. No matter what you do, if you decide to commit benefit fraud you will eventually get busted.
"This rogue went to extraordinary lengths to avoid detection and now he is exactly where he deserves to be – prison.

"This case shows that wherever you run to you will eventually be tracked down and made to pay for your crimes."
Mrs Kellaway, who did attend court on Thursday, has been forced to pay back £55,000 through the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Cops called to PM’s house: neighbour angry...


SOLDIERS guarding the private home of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at Phillipine near San Fernando called in police officers yesterday after her neighbour began removing the razor wire from a fence separating the properties.
The neighbour, Leon Achilleous, insisted he was well within his rights and his action was intended to protect his four children from harm.


Persad-Bissessar returned from Suriname last night and went directly to Parliament in Port of Spain.
Achilleous is a mechanical engineer who also resides in England.
Archilleous’ family said they had tolerated the noise of the helicopters transporting Persad-Bissessar home at night, and the parties held at her property on weekends and weekdays, but the issue of the razor wire was “just unnecessary and taking it too far”.


Achilleous said the family came home around noon to find a contractor on his property laying the razor wire along a edge of a roof on Persad-Bissessar’s property.
The family said they spoke with the supervisor and asked that he stop the work because the children could be injured.


However, the supervisor continued with the job. Achilleous, who has lived at the property for eight years, said he was attempting to remove the razor wire himself, when two soldiers confronted him.
His wife, Catriona Achilleous, said, “They intimidated my husband in their conversation.They told him to stop but he continued and the police came and told him not to do it. It is not his property.”
The couple said they had already invested $300,000 to build a wall to separate the properties, and would remove the razor wire again if it was re-installed.


The family said they were willing to go to court on the issue.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Parents Forget Child, aged 3, at Restaurant


Parents of a 3-year-old girl had some explaining to do after they forgot their daughter at a Chuck E Cheese and did not realize it until they saw her picture on the evening news.
The girl, named Harmony, was left behind at the theme restaurant in Bel Air, Md., after she attended a large party with her parents. According to a report from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office,  both of Harmony’s parents, who share custody, assumed the girl had gone home with other relatives.
A restaurant manager alerted sheriff’s deputies around 8 p.m.  that the girl had been left alone  after Harmony approached a staff member to say  she was thirsty.
Unable to locate the 3-year-old girl’s parents, the deputies asked local news media to put Harmony’s picture on the evening news.
Shortly after Harmony’s picture showed up on the 11 p.m. newscast, multiple phone calls came into the Sheriff’s Office, including calls from the girl’s  parents. After police determined that Harmony’s abandonment was inadvertent, Child Protective Services released her to her mother, and no charges are expected to be filed.


Monday 5 March 2012

Jimmy Cliff To Kick Off Celebrate Brooklyn Event This Summer



The legendary Jimmy Cliff will kick off this year’s 34th annual Celebrate Brooklyn event. The free concert will be held on June 5th at the Prospect Park Bandshell rain or shine.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Jimmy Cliff’s landmark hits, “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come” and Jamaica’s 50th year of independence.
The artist will also be touring Europe this May. For tickets and more information visit  www.jimmycliff.com

850 sex offenders 'off the radar'

Nearly 850 registered sex offenders are at large, with nearly 700 of them missing for more than a year, it was reported.
One has been off the radar for nine years.
Anyone jailed for at least 30 months for a sex crime is placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life and required to inform police if they change address.
According to figures obtained by the newspaper, following a Freedom of Information request to the National Policing Improvement Agency, a total of 843 people on the register were at large on September 1 last year. Some 690 of those had been untraceable for more than 12 months, it was reported.
The figures show the number of registered sex offenders at large has more than doubled in two years, with just 356 missing on September 1 2009.
Lynn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, told the newspaper: "The figures don't surprise me because nobody has really had a control of the Sex Offenders' Register since it was brought in. These people are offenders who want to move around and remain underground and undetected."
She added: "But how many paedophiles can be tracked down when police are asked to do so much paperwork?"
A Home Office spokesman said: "The public deserves to be protected from predatory sex offenders.
"We have consulted on a range of measures to tighten the law and close loopholes. These include making sex offenders notify the police of all foreign travel, and ensuring they cannot seek to avoid being on the Sex Offenders' Register if they change their name.
"We will be making an announcement shortly."

Read More

Friday 2 March 2012

Sheriff Uses His 10,000 Facebook Fans To Solve Crimes



Sheriff Al Lamberti, 54, is like The Consumerist with a badge and a gun.
His beat is Broward County. He's been walking it for 34 years. But he's always looking for new ways to help out the citizens he keeps watch over. Like using Facebook to solve crimes.
When a rash of air conditioning thefts hit the county, where they can go for $500 a pop resale, Sheriff Al posted about it on his Facebook wall. His over 10,000 Facebook fans saw a description of the suspects and the make of their car. Within two days, a homeowner called up 911 and said, "I think they're at the house next door." Police swooped in and made four arrests.
Normally, "That would have taken several months," Lamberti told me. First there would have had to have been the usual internal conflict and consensus-building about resource allocation. Then the information would have dribbled out through Crime Watch and Neighborhood Watch. A special task force might have to be created. Eventually a lead would generate. A few months later, an arrest. Maybe. Or maybe nothing.
But through the power and immediacy of using Facebook to directly interact with his constituency, Sheriff Al's team was able to close the case in just a couple of days.
"We could have never touched that many people through Crime Watch," he said. Al maxed out his 5,000 friend limit on his personal page and had to set up a fan page to deal with the overflow. It's got over 5,580 likes. Al often posts an "early morning wakeup call" where he wishes people a good day and comments about the weather. His fans can also learn that he is draining the pool, attending the 11th Annual Bubbles & Bones Gala, and working on the campaign for his upcoming re-election. Other times, he requests help and information from the citizens about crimes in their community.
"A lot of crimes now are non-traditional, like prescription drug abuse and identity theft," said Sheriff Al. "All these new waves of crime we just don't have the resources to deal with them while still going after bank robberies and auto theft." For instance, coupon theft isn't usually a high priority. But after hearing casually that there might be a problem with folks systematically stealing coupons from newspaper bins, Al posted about it on his Facebook wall. He got 50 public replies and over 100 private messages. A few were credible leads with eyewitness accounts, giving police the info to go on to set up a sting operation and catch several coupon thieves in the act.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Drugs Smuggler Sentenced to Four Years in Prison


A WOMAN who tried to smuggle nine kilos of high purity cocaine through Gatwick Airport has been jailed for four years.
Aimee Mason, 22, from Dagenham, Essex, was stopped by UK Border Agency staff at the airport's South Terminal on November 27 last year.
Her baggage was searched and the Class A drugs, which had a purity of about 70 per cent and an estimated street value of £360,000, were found hidden in one of her suitcases.
Mason told officers she had been on holiday to Antigua with a friend.
Despite claiming she didn't know anything about the drugs when interviewed after her arrest, Mason pleaded guilty to drug smuggling at Croydon Crown Court Thursday (February 16).

An Essex based woman, who was caught by UKBA officials trying to smuggle 9kg of pure cocaine through Gatwick in November 2011, has been jailed for four years. Aimee Mason, 22, of Singleton Road in Dagenham, was stopped for routine checks at Gatwick’s South Terminal. A search of her luggage uncovered the class A drug, which was found to have a purity of 70%.
The drug was found amongst belongings in her suitcase with officials estimating that the substance had an estimated street value of around £360,000. Following her arrest, Mason told UKBA staff that she had been in Antigua, on holiday with a friend. Having initially claimed that she knew nothing of the drugs, Mason later admitted her guilt when she appeared at Croydon Crown Court on February 16th 2012.
Peter Avery, Assistant Director of the Criminal Financial Investigation Team at the UKBA said: “The UK Border Agency is at the forefront of the fight to stop drugs, weapons, other contraband and Illegal Immigrants entering the UK. Let this case serve as a warning to those who may think they can elude our controls, we have the ability to detect and bring you to justice.”
A further UKBA statement added: “alongside a dedicated presence at our ports and airports, we also have specialist criminal and financial investigation teams across the country that work to identify those involved in smuggling and UK Immigration crime, be they the smuggler or wider criminal gang.”
Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to drug smuggling can call the smuggling hotline on 0800 59 5000.