Moment police handcuff bleary-eyed drug dealers sleeping in bed
An investigation into a drugs line operating between London and Leicestershire led officers to serve a warrant on a property in Leicester on 5 October 2022, where crack cocaine with a street value of over £10,000 was found.
Bodycam footage shows Miguel Figueiredo-Mendes and Jean Paul Ekombolo, both 28, being handcuffed after police breached the flat door.
Figueiredo-Mendes, of Orange Grove in Chigwell, was sentenced to six years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin, while Ekombolo, of Mast Street in Barking, was sentenced to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.
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The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester
A man who had returned home from his allotment with a trug of vegetables and gardening tools strapped to his belt was arrested by armed police, after a member of the public said they had seen 'a man wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife'. Samuel Rowe, 35, who works as a technical manager at a theatre, had come back from his allotment in Manchester earlier this month and decided to trim his hedge with one of his tools, a Japanese garden sickle, when police turned up on his doorstep. 'I just heard shouting behind me, and then two armed officers shouting at me to drop the knife,' he said. 'And then they turned me around, pushed me up against my house, cuffed me, and then they arrested me, put me in the back of the van.' The tools he had on his belt, he said, were a Niwaki Hori Hori gardening trowel in a canvas sheath, and an Ice Bear Japanese gardener's sickle. When he was arrested, Rowe said, the officer pulled the trowel out of its sheath, and said: 'That's not a garden tool.' 'I said it is, because it was in the Niwaki-branded pouch that you get at garden centres,' Rowe said. He was then taken to a police station and questioned. 'They started asking questions, like if I was autistic or anything like that, asking me whether I'd ever been in the army, whether I told people I was in the army,' he said. 'I was obviously in shock. I was struggling to think straight, struggling to talk properly, because I was pretty scared. I was answering the questions honestly, whatever they asked me, because I hadn't done anything wrong in my mind.' Rowe said police had questioned him on whether he was 'planning on doing something' with the tools, and he said he was also asked to explain what an allotment was. '[I had] to explain in very basic terms what an allotment is to this guy,' he said. 'So it didn't fill me with a lot of confidence that I was going to be let off.' 'I kept explaining that they're gardening tools, none of the blades were on show,' Rowe added. 'I said that I don't leave [the tools] at my allotment because it's not secure, people can break into the allotments and easily get into your shed in five minutes … they were just constantly not listening.' Rowe said he was interviewed without legal representation as officers had been unable to reach a solicitor, and after spending several hours in custody he said he accepted a caution so he would be released. 'I was trying to be overly polite in the police station and trying to ingratiate myself with them in a way, because I felt like my future was in their hands, basically,' he said. 'It was up to them whether they decided I was committing a crime or not.' A Greater Manchester police spokesperson said: 'At around 12.20pm on 3 July, we acted on a call from a member of the public that a man was walking in public wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife. 'Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male. He was subsequently stopped and a small sickle, a large dagger which was in a sheath on a belt, and a peeling knife, were seized. 'He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody. He admitted the offence and was given a conditional caution, which entailed advice and guidance around the legislation of knives and bladed weapons in a public place.' Rowe is now seeking legal representation to try to challenge his arrest and his caution. He is worried it will affect his future employment, as part of his job involves working with vulnerable adults. 'I've basically got a caution that's going to show up on a DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service check] that I don't think I deserve,' he said. 'I shouldn't have been arrested by armed officers. I want my caution removed, and then I'd like my gardening tools back. And if I got that, I might even like an apology off them, but I know the chances of that are next to nothing.'
Telegraph
12 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘I'm a scam expert but my mum still ended up on the suckers list'
Have your parents been the victim of a scam? Get in touch at money@ It was how tiny her usually indomitable mum looked when she revealed she had been a victim of a bank impersonation scam that still troubles Louise Baxter. The visible fragility as Linda, 76, got upset over the £6,450 she had nearly lost. 'She was ashen,' recalls Baxter, 45. 'And she looked small. She said to me, 'I feel like a vulnerable old lady.' I was like, 'Mum, you're not a vulnerable lady, you're a victim.' But it was really upsetting to see her like that because my mum is so fierce.' She adds: 'I felt terribly upset she had been manipulated by somebody and I hadn't been able to protect her. And I also felt a bit helpless.' Her description echoes the emotions of so many children of older scam victims, only with an extra note of self-recrimination: Baxter is the head of the National Trading Standards scams team. It's a team she set up in 2012 following a career with Trading Standards, and Baxter was awarded an MBE for her invaluable work in 2017. Yet even she couldn't stop her own mum from getting scammed. Baxter acknowledges it is difficult to admit her own mother has become a scam victim – not only once, but on two subsequent occasions, which she goes on to discuss. She alludes to the jibes she expects this interview to elicit. 'I don't doubt people are going to put some horrible things in the comments – 'Oh, why was she so stupid – she's running the national scams team',' she says. It's an attitude towards victims that she's keen to turn around. 'I think Mum was worried about telling me because of what I do,' she admits. Linda only revealed the bank scam to Baxter the day after she had clocked her mistake while speaking to another family member, who suggested she call up the bank. 'She was shaking, and she kept saying, 'I'm stupid.' And I said 'you're not stupid.' I get up on stages and shout about the fact we have to change the language; we have to provide permission for victims to come forward because nobody reports this as a crime because of the blame and shame element.' The art of the scam Baxter explains she has always talked openly about scams with her widowed mum, a retired town clerk who lives in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She views her as fully clued up. 'She's amazing, very switched on. She tells me how to manage my money; she helps friends who are less computer savvy,' she says. But Linda became ill with Covid in January 2024 and more isolated, and that affected her ability to process information and make decisions. She clicked on a scam social media advert to buy a scented candle and afterwards received genuine communication from her bank saying there had been attempted fraudulent activity on her credit card. This communication meant that when the impersonation scam happened later, her defences were down. Linda received a text one evening asking her to call her bank urgently to avert fraud and to respond using the telephone number given. A 'polite' chap called Simon took her account and bank log-in details and finally reassured her it was sorted. Within the hour a £6,000 loan was taken out on her account, and a further £450 was withdrawn to buy Royal Mint coins. Luckily, the loan withdrawal was stopped just in time. Afterwards, Baxter spoke to her mother regularly about potentially suspicious texts, emails or calls, as Linda began receiving more of them. Baxter explains that once you respond to one scam, you land on what criminals call the 'suckers list' and are targeted more. 'If you don't respond, you drop off the list,' she explains. Linda continued to ignore the scam communications until a couple of months ago, when she again bought items from adverts on Facebook, this time for the garden. She received a thank you note from the company but the items, costing £48, never arrived. The messages started up again. Recently, she was caught off-guard and responded to a text stating she had a parking fine. She clicked on the link, which took her to a legitimate-looking government website, and entered her contact details, only stopping and calling her daughter before giving her bank details. 'She said, 'I've done something silly',' Baxter recalls. She says it's a terrible feeling – that people are 'watching' her mum. 'I can't be with her all of the time,' she says. She explains even the least vulnerable older person becomes so the more they are targeted. 'There's potential for more susceptibility because there's more chance you might respond,' she says. Once a person has become a victim, they often lose confidence, too. 'The wellbeing and mental health effects are quite catastrophic, so it can sometimes catapult people into more vulnerability,' she says. She adds a staggering statistic: 'If you're elderly and a victim of a scam, you're two-and-a-half times more likely to die or go into residential care in the next 12 months.' Family rifts caused by scammers Baxter is no stranger to distressed families and, despite reiterating that anyone can become a victim, still cannot quite believe she is now one of those family members. 'There's a whole load of emotions I've dealt with (in families): frustration, desperation, the fact you haven't been able to protect them,' she says. 'A lot of shame as well. Why did I not notice? We should have visited more. And it can tear families apart. I've seen where criminals have isolated people and turned them away from their families.' This is particularly true of investment or romance scams. Baxter knows families unable to ever heal rifts. 'The criminals have said 'you can't talk about any of this because they're going to be jealous', or 'they want your money for inheritance',' she says. She describes scammers as groomers. 'They might phone on a daily basis, and so if a victim says 'my daughter says this is a scam' they'll say, 'I told you they were going to say that.'' The families won't be able to get through. 'Sometimes that could be because of cognitive decline, or because they've been coerced, controlled and emotionally manipulated to the nth degree, or it could be that there was a broken relationship before, so the criminals will hang on that,' she adds. Baxter gives broad advice to anyone trying to help a family member who has been scammed. 'The first thing is communication,' she says. 'The more people share the fact they've been a victim, the more it gives permission for others to share.' That is why Linda wanted her to speak. She also emphasises the importance of the right reaction you give a parent or grandparent. 'It's listening with empathy and no judgement. That first conversation is the most important, so they feel they can talk to you about it.' Baxter stresses the importance of simply asking a family member if they're not sure about a purchase, or a message, or any other form of communication – and to 'pause'. 'Nothing is that urgent. Criminals rely on pushing us into what's called a 'hot state' when our decision-making processes are impaired,' she says. She just wishes Linda had called when 'Simon's' text first landed. Scamming methods to beware of Lottery and clairvoyant letter scams These were rife when Baxter started working with Trading Standards 20 years ago, yet she explains they still are today. A lottery scam will suggest a big win if the recipient responds with an admin fee – but will also stress 'you mustn't tell anyone', explains Baxter. A clairvoyant letter scam, meanwhile, will often appear to be in handwriting, repeatedly use the recipient's name, and claim a clairvoyant has seen 'money on the recipient's cards'. It will ask them to respond with money for their prediction or may even threaten them if they do not 'cross their palm with silver'. These, says Baxter, are often the scams that victims don't reveal out of shame. 'Everybody's very focused on AI and the deepfake stuff,' she says, 'but in my world victims do tend to be over 70, and the old scam methods are still working.' Impersonation scams As Linda experienced, impersonation scams can be fake messages and calls from a bank, while it's also common for scammers to pretend to be the police or the NHS. And, while landlines are most prevalently used, mobiles are also targeted. 'The police one can sometimes be 'your bank account has been compromised, you need to go and get all your money out, and we're going to send a courier to collect it',' explains Baxter. A call pertaining to being from the NHS might not feel financially threatening at all, but it's no less damaging. 'It could just be someone pretending to speak from the NHS to get your personal information, to get sensitive medical history so later they could target you,' she says. Telephone scams More broadly, telephone scams can encompass any hot topic that scammers pick. Recently, calls selling roof insulation have been frequent. Baxter also lists a range of home goods and technology scams. 'We see 'you need to protect your washing machine and fridge freezer' and offers of an insurance-backed guarantee. Fake white goods protection policies will take a direct debit of £20 from your account each month. Older people might not access online banking and check their direct debits,' she says. Then there is the call claiming your computer has been compromised. 'They'll say 'we're from Microsoft, we just need to help you to block it.' They'll get you on to your computer and give you some code that gives them access so they can scrape it.' She adds: 'Victims have even been offered a call-blocking subscription to protect their phone from criminals.' Romance and 'pig butchering' fraud Baxter explains that victims of romance scams tend to be in their 50s and upwards, with the scams becoming more prevalent as people try online dating in older age. 'People are in an online relationship with somebody, and then that person needs money for plane tickets, hospital bills, or house maintenance', she says. She warns that romance scams can also evolve into a scam termed 'pig butchering'. This is when the victim is encouraged to make increasing financial contributions, usually in the form of cryptocurrency. 'The scammer will say something like, 'oh my God, I've had such a great day, I've just invested in this amazing scheme, it's going to make me millions of pounds.' And they talk about that a lot, and the victim will say, 'I've got £500 I can spare on that' – so you invite yourself in.' The 'butchering' later becomes apparent when the funds invested and the returns never appear. 'Hi Mum, it's me' texts These aren't new but are still prevalent, warns Baxter. In the form of a text, the victim will receive a natural-sounding message purporting to be from their son or daughter needing financial help. 'It'll often start with 'Hi Mum, my phone just broke, so can you delete the number and save this one?'' says Baxter. The conversation will continue depending on how the victim responds. ''I lost my phone' or 'I haven't got my bank account set up yet', or something like that. 'You couldn't just send £500 to my account?' and they'll send some details.'
Telegraph
21 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘My 98-year-old partner fell from a window and died. Now his family blame me'
A 90-year-old widow has spoken of how her aristocratic partner's family blamed her when he died. Michael Brudenell-Bruce, the 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, was found dead on the patio of the couple's Shepherd's Bush home in London on May 12 last year after falling from a bedroom window. Teresa Marshall De Paoli, his widow, has now claimed that her partner of 37 years' grandchildren told mourners at his funeral that she had 'pushed him out of a window'. He was found with head and chest injuries and at least three belts wrapped around his arms. Ms De Paoli told the Daily Mail: 'Members of the family wanted a verdict of assisted suicide. That way they could challenge Michael's will because, as with all these things, it is about money.' A coroner's inquest ruled in March that Brudenell-Bruce took his own life, despite claims from barristers representing his family that there should be a narrative conclusion of assisted suicide. David Brudenell-Bruce, the late Marquess's estranged son, and Lady Louise Brudenell-Bruce were among those to accuse Ms De Paoli of helping him take his own life. The coroner found that Brudenell-Bruce took his own life because he was determined not to be a burden on his loved ones after being diagnosed with dementia four years before. Money has 'torn the family apart' David, the current Marquess of Ailesbury, and Lady Louise were both left out of their father's estate. Ms De Paoli said that money had 'torn the family apart', adding: 'The saddest thing of all is that these fights are all about money.' She went on to claim she had been left with PTSD over her partner's death. Brudenell-Bruce had five children with his first two partners: David, Lady Sylvia, Lady Carina, Lady Louise and Lady Kathryn. Lady Carina and Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, who is estranged from his father David, supported Ms De Paoli at the inquest, with Lady Carina, who lives on the Caribbean island of Tortola, writing a character reference in support of her stepmother. She wrote: 'I live thousands of miles away and always had total belief that he was safe and happy with Teresa.' Ms De Paoli also has close relationships with Lady Sylvia and Lady Kathryn. The late Marquess and his son became estranged because David believed that his father had improperly removed assets from the trust that owns Savernake Estate before he handed it to him in 1997. Ms De Paoli has refuted this suggestion. The Marquessate of Ailesbury was created in the 19th century, while the Brudenell ancestry dates back to medieval times. The family is custodian of the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire, and, until its £11.5m sale in 2014, were owners of the estate's Palladian mansion, Tottenham House.
