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Expenses cheat MP to be sentenced
Former Labour MP David Chaytor will be sentenced later over £20,000 in fraudulent expenses claims.
Chaytor, 61, the former MP for Bury North, last month admitted three charges of false accounting.
He faces a maximum of seven years in jail, although his guilty plea will be taken into account by the sentencing judge.
He was to have been the first MP to stand trial over his expenses, before he changed his plea.
Two other former MPs, one current MP and two members of the House of Lords are due to face separate trials over their expenses claims.
Chaytor, who stood down as an MP at the general election having been barred by Labour from standing for them again, is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.
Chaytor had claimed £12,925 between 2005 and 2006 for renting a flat in Regency Street, near Westminster, which he owned – producing a fake tenancy agreement which said he was paying £1,175 a month rent.
He also falsely claimed £5,425 between 2007 and 2008 for renting a home in Castle Street, Bury, which was owned by his mother. He admitted he had not paid his mother, who had moved into a home because of illness. Under Commons rules he was not allowed to rent from a family member.
A third charge related to falsely charging £1,950 for IT support services in May 2006. The charge said that he supplied two invoices from a man named Paul France for his professional services “when in fact the services had not been provided or charged for”. However in that case, Chaytor had not received the money claimed.
He had denied the charges but appeared at the Old Bailey in December to change his plea, having failed in a court bid to argue that expenses cases should be heard by Parliament, not the courts.
Chaytor’s QC James Sturman told the judge, Mr Justice Saunders that £13,000 had already been repaid – and there were “many misconceptions” about the case which he aimed to “put right” at the sentencing hearing.
Chaytor, who was elected during Labour’s 1997 landslide victory, had spent his 13 years in the Commons on the back benches.
He was suspended by the Labour Party and barred from standing for them again after stories about his expenses claims emerged when the Daily Telegraph published hundreds of claims made by MPs over several years.
At the time he apologised for what he called accounting errors and referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner for investigation.
But after a lengthy police inquiry the Crown Prosecution Service announced in February he would face criminal charges.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Boxer Mason killed in bike crash
Former British boxing champion Gary Mason has died in a cycling crash in south London.
Mason, 48, was on his bicycle in Sandy Lane South, Wallington, on Thursday morning when he was involved in a collision with a van.
The retired fighter was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and bailed until March pending further inquiries.
The 43-year-old, who was driving a white Vauxhall “combi” van, had stopped at the scene.
Mason fought 38 times as a professional between 1984 and 1994, with 37 wins.
His only defeat was against future world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Officers were alerted at about 6.15am yesterday to a van in collision with a bicycle on Sandy Lane South, near the junction with Woodcote Road, Wallington.
“The cyclist, aged 48 years, was pronounced dead at the scene.”
A post-mortem examination will be held at St Helier Hospital mortuary and an inquest will be opened at Croydon Coroner’s Court.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Security level raised at airports
The terrorist threat level specific to major UK transport hubs has been raised from substantial to severe, the BBC understands.
The move includes airports and London railway terminals, although there is no suggestion of any intelligence of an imminent attack.
The threat to the UK overall remains where it has been for the past year at the second-highest level, “severe”.
Security officials are stressing the change is precautionary.
The overall national threat level at severe means a terrorist attack is highly likely.
Beneath this are a series of threat levels for specific sectors of the national infrastructure which are not normally made public.
But it is understood the threat level for major transport hubs, including airline terminals and major railway stations in London, has been increased from substantial to severe.
Officials say if there was any intelligence of an imminent threat or a plot under way the threat level would be raised to its highest level, “critical”.
There have been concerns in recent months over the possibility of Mumbai-style gun attacks in Europe and the intelligence that led to this change is believed to cover Europe as a whole.
In practice, the move means more police are likely to be visible at airports and railway stations from Friday.
BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said: “Officials are stressing that there is no intelligence of an imminent attack. This is more precautionary than anything else.
Source: Home Office
“If there was some kind of intelligence of a plot under way, or that there was a threat to these locations tomorrow, then the threat level would go up to the highest level which is ‘critical’. That’s not happening.
“These sector threat levels do change quite often. Normally the changes happen out of the public eye and officials don’t comment on them.
“But what we can expect to see is a greater police presence, particularly at airports and large railway stations.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The threat level to the UK is at severe, which means that an attack is highly likely, and has been since January 2010.
“We will police accordingly and use a range of covert and overt tactics which remain under constant review.”
The Home Office said there was a “continuing need for everyone to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to the police”.
A spokesman for airports operator BAA said: “Security at our airports remains at a high level and we remain vigilant at all times.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Water advice ‘was not acted on’
The head of an independent review into Northern Ireland’s water services has said the team’s two reports were not acted on.
The review was set up by the assembly in 2007 after direct rule ministers advised that water services should be privatised.
Among its recommendations were that water charges should come in.
“We prepared the reports and they’re still sitting on somebody’s shelf somewhere,” Prof Paddy Hillyard said.
About 40,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland were cut off from the mains water supply during the Christmas period and the government-owned NI Water was severely criticised for its response to those in need.
Professor Hillyard said he “was very fearful it will happen again” because the water system “just cannot cope with heavy frost”.
On Thursday, it was announced that an investigation into the crisis had been widened.
The Executive has agreed to appoint two people to scrutinise the role of the Department of Regional Development, while the utility regulator will investigate NI Water’s performance.
Professor Hillyard said as the regulator has a role in approving or disapproving investment in the water infrastructure, the investigation was not independent.
“To ask the regulator to carry out a review when he is in fact part of the government’s arrangements will mean that it won’t be totally independent
“What the people of Northern Ireland need is a totally independent review,” he said.
“What worries me is that with the (assembly) elections coming up these reports are going to yet again be sitting on somebody’s shelf gathering dust and nothing will de done until after the election.
“We have so little time to prepare for another possible crisis like this winter and we have to move very fast to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Assurances
Earlier, Northern Ireland’s regional development minister said he had been assured that measures are in place to ensure there is no repeat of the water crisis.
Conor Murphy said NI Water had told the Executive and his department about “the immediate lessons they have put in place”.
“We also received a report from the Civil Contingencies Group – who span across all departments in terms of a response to an emergency situation – to tell us what suggestions they had put in place to allow other agencies and government departments to assist NI Water should any issue like this arise again.
“So there were very firm reassurances given to the Executive and the regional development committee that there have been a lot of immediate lessons learned and measures put in place to ensure we don’t have a reoccurrence of this this winter,” Mr Murphy said.
On Thursday, the Executive agreed to a twin track review of the crisis after hours of talks.
Mr Murphy said the investigation had been widened “to ensure that there was some confidence that there is a proper investigation into all of this”.
The Executive meeting came after senior officials from Northern Ireland Water were grilled by members of Stormont’s Regional Development Committee earlier on Thursday.
The chief executive of NI Water during the crisis, Laurence MacKenzie, was absent after he agreed to step down from his role in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The company’s director of customer services, Liam Mulholland, told the committee that it had received more than 1m contacts from the public over the Christmas period and that its systems had “simply been overwhelmed”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Four uni courses facing cutbacks
Courses, staff and students are set to be reduced at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, (Uwic) as higher education funding cuts and changes take effect.
The university will decide whether to close four courses at a meeting on Friday.
It is also proposed to cut 35 jobs and “significantly reduce” student numbers at the university’s school of art.
Uwic said the institution would try to “protect academic posts”.
The courses under threat include the university’s BA in interior architecture, BA sociology & criminology/popular culture, the BSc in music technology and design/sonic arts, and BA in media studies with visual cultures.
The university said they were responding to funding cuts and the assembly government’s desire to eliminate regional competition between universities.
They said the quality of learning and teaching for current students would not be affected.
Applications to the university’s interior architecture course have been suspended leading to an outcry amongst Uwic graduates and design professionals.
Interior Educators, an organisation established by academics to represent interior design/architecture courses in the UK, sent a letter signed by representatives from 37 universities and colleges to the university urging a re-think.
“In the industry, if you say you’re from the Uwic interior architecture course it’s highly regarded”
Kimberley Johnson Uwic interior architecture graduate 2010
Graham Brooker, director of Interior Educators, said it was a “poor idea to remove such a highly regarded course”.
“Interior Educators represents the best interior design courses across the UK,” he said.
“In that group the Uwic course is regarded as one of the best so to close it is a real shock, we’re quite upset.”
Kimberley Johnson, who graduated from the course in 2010 and now works at a contemporary furniture supplier in Cardiff, said it has had great success in finding meaningful employment for students.
“I’m horrified that other people won’t get what I’ve got now,” she said.
“In the industry, if you say you’re from this course it’s highly regarded.”
Recruitment at Welsh universities will be capped this year for the first time as the assembly government seeks to control the number of students it supports.
An internal Uwic document, seen by BBC Wales, reveals that the number of students at the university’s school of art will be “significantly reduced” as a result of the new cap, with 25% fewer places available in future.
The document also outlines proposals to reduce staffing at the school of art by over a third, meaning 35 jobs will be lost.
Russell Smith, who is the University and College Union (UCU) chief negotiating officer at Uwic, said he hopes the plans can be stopped.
“We don’t want any redundancies,” he said.
“We think they can make reductions through natural wastage and by offering voluntary severance.”
A spokepserson for the university said it realised that “changes of this nature will affect a number of current staff”.
“Previous restructures have shown that the university will do everything possible to protect academic posts and that all staff are supported throughout.
“Any changes reflect the desire of the Welsh Assembly Government for universities to plan their provision on a regional basis eliminating competition.”
Education Minister Leighton Andrews, has repeatedly called for mergers between universities and in December the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) published proposals to reduce the number of universities in Wales from 10 to six, with just two universities in south east Wales.
A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: “Higher education institutions in Wales are autonomous bodies with sole responsibility for their own academic and administrative affairs.
“This includes course provision and staffing matters.
“It would not, therefore, be appropriate for us to intervene in matters which are for Uwic to determine.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Ivory Coast military call queried
Ghana’s president has said he does not think military force will solve the post-election deadlock in Ivory Coast.
John Atta Mills also said Ghana would not take sides in the stand-off between incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
The international community has recognised Mr Ouattara as the winner of November’s presidential election and urged Mr Gbagbo to quit.
West African regional grouping Ecowas has threatened to force Mr Gbagbo out.
Mr Ouattara called this week for a special forces operation to remove Mr Gbagbo.
But President Mills appeared to reject such an idea in a speech on Friday. “I personally do not think the military option will solve the problem in Ivory Coast,” he was quoted as saying.
“Ghana is not taking sides and Ghana will support any government.”
Ghana is one of three countries that would normally be expected to play a leading role in any military intervention by Ecowas.
Mr Ouattara remains behind a blockade at a hotel in the main city Abidjan, protected by UN peacekeepers and New Forces former rebels who control the north of the country.
There are an estimated 10,000 UN troops in Ivory Coast – and the mission has sent a request to the UN Security Council for an extra 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers.
Ecowas has already started drawing up plans for a regional intervention force, though there are questions about how ready or well-equipped member countries are.
Mr Gbagbo has come under increasing pressure from the international community.
In response, he said on Thursday he was expelling the ambassadors of Britain and Canada.
Both countries have expelled ambassadors appointed by Mr Gbagbo in order to replace them with diplomats chosen by Mr Ouattara.
The US has frozen the assets of Mr Gbagbo, his wife and three aides, and has announced that it is barring US citizens from financial dealings with Mr Gbagbo.
November’s election was intended to reunify the country, which has been divided since a 2002 conflict.
Mr Ouattara was initially proclaimed the winner by the country’s election commission – a verdict backed by the UN, which helped organise the poll.
But the country’s Constitutional Council, headed by an ally of Mr Gbagbo, later ruled that he had won, citing voting irregularities in the north.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.