Hunts to miss agricultural show's hound parade after convictions
The annual show, at the Turnpike Showground in Motcombe, is a celebration of rural life and includes a 20-minute parade of hounds.Organisers said the parade, which offers a "glimpse into a longstanding countryside tradition" would go ahead.A statement said: "We understand that trail hunting remains a divisive issue. "This decision does not reflect a shift in the society's values, nor is it a commentary on legal hunting activity. "Rather, it is a response to recent legal convictions and our responsibility to maintain the reputation and charitable aims of the show."As well as the parade of hounds, the show will feature medieval jousting, motorcycle stunt riders, livestock parades, show jumping, terrier racing and steam vehicles.
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Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Moment antiques dealer mastermind behind Britain's most upmarket 'Top Gear' cocaine ring is arrested by cops
This is the moment police captured an antiques dealer who masterminded a cocaine ring racket calling themselves the ' Top Gear ' gang. Footage has been released of the raid following the sentencing of 57-year-old antiques trader Nathan Samuels, jailed for nine years at Inner London Crown Court. His gang's clients ranged from lawyers and traders to insurers and recruitment specialists – almost 10,000, all expecting high-end service and mind-blowing quality. Everyone who was anyone in the Square Mile knew the number of the Top Gear phone line – also called City Gear. It had been operating under the police radar since 2014, shifting millions of pounds worth of Class A drugs to well-off customers. Detectives say the men behind the operation provided a middle class service to a largely middle class clientele – until it came crashing down thanks to an ingenious investigation by the City of London police. Four of Samuels' fast delivery couriers – including a black cabbie – have also now received prison sentences ranging from two years suspended to four years and three months in jail. All had pleaded guilty to a string of cocaine supplying offences. Last week, Samuels' son, Matthew, 33, was imprisoned for three and a half years for his part in the operation. In any given week the gang was selling up to £16,400 worth of cocaine, almost exclusively in the City of London Det Const Matt Cooper, from the City of London's Serious Organised Crime team, said: 'We'd never seen anything like it – it was the longest-running and one of the biggest drug lines the City had ever known. 'It sold 80 per cent pure cocaine – when the norm was about 50 per cent – and promised to get drugs to customers in less than 30 minutes. And if a client complained about a slow delivery, they'd receive an apology.' Meticulously compiled ledgers seized by the police when the gang members were arrested in 2023 showed that in any given week they were selling up to £16,400 worth of cocaine, almost exclusively in the City. At the head of the operation was the most unlikely of crime bosses – a man with no criminal record at all. Nathan Samuels, a father of four and grandfather of two, lived in an £800-a month four storey council house in Cornwall Road, a stone's throw from Waterloo Station, and had an interest in London books and artwork. He had a business selling antiques, jewellery and watches, and owned a company – Samsite Ltd – which specialised in renting spaces outside train stations and subletting them to fast food takeaway trucks. These included sites outside Waterloo and Southwark stations which were brought to their knees during the Covid pandemic as customers dwindled to almost nothing – and police believe this downturn could have focused Samuels' attention on the drugs business. City police's investigation ran from March 2022 to October 2023 and during that period detectives established that the key phones in the operation had been in use since 2014. But such devices – whose contacts are a list ready-made drugs businesses – can change hands for large sums of money. It is thought Samuels' Covid difficulties could have driven him to buying one. 'He ran the business like a taxi cab office,' says Detective Sergeant Darren Norman, who oversaw the case. 'They called their wraps of cocaine "tickets", so a customer would ring or message the Top Gear line and tell Samuels they wanted so many tickets delivered to a particular location or postcode. Samuels was able to track all his couriers using their phones, and would choose the nearest one to the customer. That's why it was so fast.' Because the cocaine was so pure, it was only sold in half-gram wraps at one for £50, two for £90, three for £140 and five for £200. Couriers, who were paid £300 a day plus bonuses for good sales, were encouraged to be customer-friendly and smart. As added perks, any congestion charge fees, parking tickets and car hire expenses were covered. Samuels would hire up to six couriers a day, each expected to make between 50 and 75 sales. Deliveries took place from 10am to midnight. One of the couriers, Michael Redgrave, 56, who lived on the same street as Samuels, used his black cab to make deliveries. A cabbie for 23 years, he told police he was making up to £500 a day from his taxi business, and a further £300 for drug drop-offs. Detectives say Samuels, a father of four and grandfather of two. used some of the money to take his family on lavish holidays. He was also the proud owner of a purebred British bulldog. The gang kept detailed ledgers of their accounts, which showed the extent of their crimes Police also intercepted encrypted messages, which contained details of the thousands of customers the gang supplied DS Norman said, following the verdicts: 'During 30 years as a police officer, I've never come across a London cabbie we've caught dealing drugs. 'They're usually honest individuals who take pride in all the work they've put in to do The Knowledge. 'But he made the decision to deliver drugs – and it was almost the perfect crime. 'Nobody would think twice about a person getting into a cab, being driven off and then getting out farther down the road with cocaine in their pocket.' The Top Gear operation began to unravel when, in February 2022, another courier, Gary Miller, 36, from Islington, was caught making a cocaine delivery As detectives examined his phone records, they were able to begin a huge cross-referencing operation that led to customers, fellow couriers – and, eventually, to gang boss Samuels. The investigation was groundbreaking because police were able to close down the most sophisticated cocaine operation on their patch – and elicit guilty pleas – without carrying out any large-scale seizures. In fact, the drugs they found were almost exclusively recovered from customers during the arrests of couriers who had just delivered to them. The cross-referencing of calls and delivery locations enabled the police to begin making arrests without having to catch the couriers in possession of drugs. Samuels' son Matthew, a personal trainer and father of one, also a director of Samsite Ltd, was arrested with no drugs on him. Unlike the other gang members, he did not reply 'no comment' to every question during interview. Instead, he made risible excuses to Detectives Cooper and Norman. DS Norman said: 'We asked why there were so many references on his phone to "Charlie", which is slang for cocaine, and "Henry", short for Henry VIII – which, in drugs circles, refers to an eighth of an ounce of cannabis, which he had a sideline selling. 'He insisted that Charlie and Henry were friends of his. And he kept that up right up until court when he changed his plea to guilty for supplying cannabis.' Samuels pleaded not guilty to the cocaine charges, but was later found guilty. Also found with no drugs – but entering guilty pleas – were couriers Aaron Bretao, 43, from Clerkenwell, and Martin Gupta, 35, from Barnet. They were arrested in May 2023. Gupta, who had previous convictions for actual bodily harm, assault, and being drunk and disorderly, was caught empty-handed but he had been witnessed making two drug deals before his arrest. Driving a moped, delivering drugs had been his full-time job for around three years. Police say he had been overheard boasting to friends that he was making up to £3,000 a week. He spent much of it on holidays to destinations such as Cape Verde and Morocco with his wife and stepdaughter. After the arrests of Miller (who was given 45 months in prison at an earlier hearing), Gupta and Bretao, Nathan Samuels feared the police would be coming for him next and handed over three drug phones for safekeeping to another gang member, Josh Atherton, 24, a former carpenter. But detectives had already linked him to the operation. When they raided his home in Hemingford Road, Islington, two days after detaining Gupta, Atherton had none of the vital phones on him – but DS Norman found them during a search of nearby gardens. 'He had thrown them there, but once DS Norman had sniffed them out, you could say the net had closed on Samuels,' says DC Cooper. 'Two of those phones had numbers used for the Top Gear drug lines – and inside those handsets we found the contact details of more than 9,700 customers.' Police also recovered ledgers at Atherton's home detailing the gang's incomings and outgoings. They reinforced the case against Nathan Samuels. Samuels and son were arrested simultaneously a week later, on July 12 2023. Again, no drugs were found, yet guilty pleas were forthcoming because of the airtight nature of the communications evidence against them. 'Nathan Samuels wasn't like Pablo Escobar, sitting on piles of coke,' says DS Norman. 'We found no drugs at all. He was calm and mild-mannered. But after the arrests of the other gang members, he had probably been expecting us.' Officers did not discover the source of the Top Gear gang's supply of drugs, but it may not be a coincidence that Nathan's nephew, Harry Hicks-Samuels, 28, was jailed in November 2022 for conspiracy to import cocaine. He had been caught as a result of a National Crime Agency operation after French police cracked a secret messaging system called EncroChat which had been widely used by international criminals who wrongly thought its sophisticated encryption was foolproof. Again, it may not be a coincidence that Hicks-Samuels, like his uncle, ran a business selling watches, an enterprise that turned out to be a front for his cocaine operation. No Top Gear customers have faced criminal charges, but all those caught after buying drugs in the moments before the couriers were arrested were given cautions for possession. Their evidence helped bring down the organised crime group. However, the top 2,000 most prolific customers were subsequently given a jolt as strong as anything the Top Gear gang ever sold them. They were sent a text message by the City of London police that would have had hearts racing. 'Significant police activity has highlighted that this number has been used to contact the "City Gear" drug line, a number involved in the supply of Class A drugs,' it read. 'Drug misuse can affect your employment. Drug possession is still illegal and can lead to your arrest. Convictions for drug misuse can affect your right to travel to certain countries.'
Sky News
6 minutes ago
- Sky News
Ten men arrested over historical child sexual abuse allegations in Bradford
Ten men have been arrested by police investigating allegations of historical child sexual abuse in Bradford. West Yorkshire Police said the men, aged between 49 and 71, were arrested from addresses in the city. The allegations relate to offences, which are reported to have occurred in the area between 1994 and 1997 and relate to six victims who were aged 13 to 15 at the time. Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Greenbank of Bradford District Police said: "Safeguarding and protecting children remains the top priority for West Yorkshire Police. "This investigation demonstrates the force's ongoing commitment to the investigation of both current and non-recent sexual offences against children. "I would urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, whether recent or non-recent, to report it to the police." Please refresh the page for the latest version.
Telegraph
6 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Divorced man left with 0.5pc of wife's fortune wins ‘gender bias' appeal
A husband who received £325,000 in a divorce from his multimillionaire wife has won a court appeal after accusing the divorce judge of ' gender prejudice '. High Court judge Mr Justice Francis awarded Simon Entwistle, a 42-year-old City trader, just 0.5 per cent of Jenny Helliwell's fortune in January last year. Mr Entwistle claimed that the judge, who upheld a pre-nuptial agreement in which the couple agreed to keep their own assets in the event of a split, would not have made the same ruling if the genders were reversed. Appeal judge Lady Justice King ruled that Mr Entwistle's case should be heard again, after she accused Ms Helliwell, 42, of 'fraudulent' behaviour by not declaring almost £48m of her £66m personal fortune whilst making the prenup. Mr Entwistle and Ms Helliwell married in 2019 in a £500,000 ceremony in Paris and lived in a £4.5m villa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They split after three years of marriage in August 2022 when Ms Helliwell ordered her husband out of their home with 48 hours' notice. In court, Mr Entwistle asked for £2.5m of his ex-wife's personal fortune, including £26,000 for a personal meal plan, as a court heard he ' can't even cook an omelette '. He was left with a 0.5 per cent cut after the judge upheld a prenup, which Mr Entwistle went on to dispute. Appealing the ruling, Mr Entwistle said he was a victim of 'gender prejudice' and that the prenup had been invalidated by Ms Helliwell having failed to disclose assets worth almost £48m – amounting to 73 per cent of her wealth – when he signed it. At the Court of Appeal in March 2025, Deborah Bangay KC, for Mr Entwistle, said: 'The judge was warned against gender prejudice, but failed to heed that warning. 'Had the positions been reversed, it is very unlikely that [Mr Justice Francis] would have ... so ungenerously assessed the needs of a wife after a six-year relationship.' Lady Justice King has ruled that the non-disclosure by the heiress amounted to 'fraudulent' behaviour, which invalidated the prenup. She sent the case back to the divorce courts, ordering it to be recalculated as if the prenup did not exist. The appeal judge said: 'Since the husband in the instant case was deliberately deprived of information which it had been agreed that he should have, in my judgment, the agreement cannot stand.' A 'fraudulent' prenup Lady Justice King, giving her ruling today, made no finding on the gender prejudice argument, but said that when agreeing to the agreement, Ms Helliwell disclosed £18.2m of assets, and failed to include £47.9m assets. The assets Ms Helliwell failed to mentioned in her prenup included almost £40m worth of business assets, £8m worth of beachfront land in Dubai and a £1.6m house in Wimbledon, where her mother lives. Lady Justice King said: 'The deliberate decision by the wife not to disclose her business assets and her interest in her mother's house amounted to fraudulent non-disclosure which vitiates the agreement.' She concluded: 'In my judgment, the judge erred in law in concluding that on the facts of the case, the wife's deliberate non-disclosure, on current figures, of some 73 per cent of her wealth did not serve to vitiate the agreement.' She added there must be a 'reconsideration of the husband's needs and in particular his housing provision'.
