Guns And Drugs Seized In String Of Dawn Raids

A huge gang-busting swoop by police investing gun and drug crimes has resulted in eighteen arrests and the seizure of sixteen firearms during a string of armed dawn raids.

Operation Peyzac – an eighteen-month probe in Enfield, North London – targeted serious and organized crime and twenty-two addresses were raided.

The operation involved opening a shop in a neighbourhood where intelligence indicated gang activity and associated criminality took place.

The 18 suspects - 17 men and one woman - were arrested at addresses in Enfield, Haringey, Redbridge and Leeds on suspicion of offences including conspiracy to supply firearms and supplying controlled drugs.

At the address in Haringey a suspected gun conversion factory was discovered and ammo and firearms components seized.

The 16 firearms - all handguns - were recovered prior to the arrest phase, along with over a kilo of controlled drugs, samurai swords, knives and air rifles.

David Tucker, Enfield's Chief Superintendent, said: "Today's arrests follow a lengthy operation by Enfield Borough Police to combat criminal networks within the borough after concern was raised by the local community some time ago.

"Significant resources have been devoted to Operation Peyzac over many months.

We will not tolerate violence and associated gang activity within the borough and will always ensure we use a variety of police tactics to track down criminals and bring them to justice.

"We know that we have the support of the wider community in this area to combat violence and we will be working with communities in the future to build sustained peace in the area."

Pub Attack Leaves Drinker With Fractured Skull

A drunken pub customer, who left a fellow-drinker with a fractured skull after suspecting the stranger of “chatting up” his aunt, has dodged prison with a suspended sentence.

Building surveyor student Adam Harvey, 24, of Jessop Court, Graham Street, Islington pleaded guilty to wounding the victim, causing him grievous bodily harm, outside the ‘Narrowboat’ (pictured) in nearby St. Peter’s Street, on December 12, 2008.

He also pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court to assaulting the victim’s male friend and was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

The court heard Harvey, whose girlfriend is a social worker with Islington’s youth offending team, became angry with a group of four men outside the pub late at night.

He punched the first victim to the ground and delivered two kicks – one to the man’s head – then punched his friend several times to the side of the face.

The semi-conscious victim, who was convulsing, was rushed by friends to hospital where it was confirmed he suffered a fractured skull.

“You pleaded guilty to an immensely serious offence, punching and kicking a stranger outside a pub,” Judge Daniel Worsley told the first-time offender.

“You kicked him twice, fracturing his skull and chased and assaulted another man.

“You started the fight. In your mind you thought he and his friends were being offensive to your aunt.

“You are lucky you did not cause him more serious long term injury. A kick like that can kill someone, you could have been here on a murder charge,” added the Judge.

Harvey was also placed under one year’s supervision, must complete sixty hours unpaid community service work and obey a nighttime curfew for six months.

Internet Child Sex Pervert Jailed

A veteran legal worker trapped by the Met's Paedophile Unit was jailed for fifteen months today for downloading over 600 indecent videos and stills of children as young as five and of adults having sex with animals.

Alan Swaby, 69, of Eastern Avenue, Ilford - who prepares wills for clients - convinced his family he was trying to find online music when the material suddenly downloaded itself onto his computer.

"They are indeed frankly truly shocking examples of abuse of young children," the Recorder of Westminster Geoffrey Rivlin QC told Swaby.

"Some of these young children were being restrained, some were obviously absolutely terrified by what was going on.

"Goodness knows how you could watch this material and gain satisfaction from it, but you did.

"There are many young children involved and their lives are bound to have been seriously effected by what was happening to them and they are entitled to be protected."

Swaby pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to making an indecent photo of a child, namely 314 moving images on July 8, last year.

He also pleaded guilty to a similar charge relating to 204 indecent still images of children and possessing extreme pornography, namely 113 images of adults having sex with live animals.

Swaby must also sign-on the sex offenders register for ten years and a seven-year sex offenders order was made banning him from unsupervised work with children, using a computer to view indecent images of children, using any devise to save images of children and he must allow police access to his home and workplace to monitor his activities.

Prosecutor Miss Usha Shergill told the court an "intelligence investigation" by police into an online file-sharing service led them to Swaby, who's home was raided on July 8, last year.

Two computers were seized and examined by specialists and the defendant confessed to officers.

"He told police he initially searched for adult pornography and then began to look at images of child pornography," explained Miss Shergill. "The youngest he had seen was aged five."

Swaby's lawyer Mr. Martin James told the judge: "He wishes to apologise to you, the courts and the police. He admits this is disgusting."

Of the 500-plus child images 45% were at the highest level of indecency.

Judge Rivlin told Swaby, whose wife is a legal secretary: "You seem to have convinced members of your family all you were doing was trying to listen to music and this came to view by some accident."

Illegal Mum-Of-Four Must Go

An illegal immigrant who pocketed nearly £10,000 in benefits and gave birth to three children in the U.K. should not be granted the 'right to family life' under Human Rights legislation and be deported, a judge said today.

Sierra Leone-born Aminata Koroma, 36, of Grove Lane, Plumstead, South-East london duped the Department of Work and Pensions into giving her a national insurance number, which she used to claim £9,963.38 in income support as a single parent while living with the father of her youngest child.

"I don't think it is desirable you stay in this country," Blackfriars Crown Court (pictured) Judge Ian Karsten QC told the sobbing mother-of-four. "Being a burden on the state for the past three years, you do not have a good claim."

The judge acknowledged Koroma, who entered to U.K. in 2000 with her eldest daughter, could challenge the Border Agency's decision to seek deportation under European Human Rights legislation, but said should be removed after serving her prison sentence.

"You used forged documents to remain in this country when you were not entitled to and obtained state benefits," added Judge Karsten.

Jobless cleaner Koroma, whose four daughters aged eight months, two, nine and fifteen years have at least three different fathers, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a false instrument on November 26, 2004, namely a forged Sierra Leone passport and Home Office letter.

Both purportedly gave Koroma indefinite leave to reside and work and claim benefits in the U.K. and she received income benefit payments between January 13, 2007 and March 31, this year.

Prosecutor Mr. Ross Cifonelli told the court: "There is no record of her arriving and the stamps in her Sierra Leone passport were false. We don't know how she got into the country."

Koroma was arrested on March 23 after a review of her benefit claim revealed false documents were used to establish identity.

She told investigators she claimed political asylum on entering the U.K., after her father and brother were murdered by rebels in her homeland, but there is no record of such a claim.

After giving birth to her eldest daughter in Sierra Leone, Koroma claims a cruel Dutchman brought her to Holland and she then fled to London, immersing herself in Peckham's huge African community and earning cash via prostitution.

She paid £1500 for the bogus Home Office letter and after obtaining her national insurance number illegally worked at a care home and for ISS UK Ltd. earning £20,564.90 between April 2005 and October 2006.

"It looks like you came in by some illegal means," Judge Karsten told Koroma, sentencing her to twelve months imprisonment, which automatically triggers a recommendation for deportation.

"Nobody knows who you are, or your background," added the Judge. "We do not know how true what you say is."

Credit Card Fraudsters Web Spread Across Planet

A gang of forgers who manufactured credit cards from a small run-down flat – spending hundreds of thousands of pounds in an international spending-spree – have been locked up.

Genuine card holders in the United States were targeted by the Lithuanian gang who forged hundreds of cards used in their home country plus Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

The unlikely hub of the operation was a one-bedroom flat overlooking the busy A40 dual carriageway in West London, which enabled the fraudsters to buy top of the line cars, electrical goods and designer clothes.

The gang are: Lithuanian-born Alan Judys, 43, (pic.l) of Central Parade, Perivale; Iranian-born Ryad Mazen Al Hadley, 40, (pic.mid) of Preston Road, Wembley, Middlesex and Lithuanian-born Vytaras Nemcinskas, 31, (pic.r) of Kingsbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex.

The gang was caught following an intelligence-led operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Operation Maxim and they all pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court.

On November 17, last year police raided their addresses in West London, including Judys – the nerve centre of the operation – where officers seized colour printers, hot foil presses and embossers.

Searches of the other two addresses also uncovered a vast array of forged bankcards, forgery equipment, printers, embossing machines, hundreds of blank cards and cards in various states of manufacture into bank cards.

They also found hundreds of forged Lithuanian driving licences used to verify the false cards during transactions.

At the Wembley address, officers found wardrobes filled with Gucci clothing as well as wide screen televisions and a Mercedes car parked in the driveway.

All of the goods had been bought with the proceeds of the gang's criminal activity.

Judys and Al Hadley received four years each and Nemcinskas eight months.

Detective Inspector Clive Strong said:” Following a detailed and meticulous proactive operation an international criminal network has been thwarted.

"Their criminal activities have been brought to a halt preventing them from defrauding hundreds of thousands of pounds more.

"This sends a strong message that those who come to the UK to commit crime will be apprehended and brought to justice."

Lawyer Jailed For Stealing £800k From Clients

A veteran solicitor, who helped himself to over £800,000 in clients' cash over three years at his failing firm to fund an "extravagant" lifestyle has been locked-up for two years and ordered to repay £156,000.

David May, 69, destroyed a forty-six year unblemished reputation in the profession after dipping regularly into a £280,000 will he was handling and writing-up 56 bogus bills for non-existent work - costing unsuspecting clients over £70,000

May, of Longridge Avenue, Saltdean, East Sussex - formerly of Badgers Holt, Homefield Road, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth - pleaded guilty that between July 13, 2006 and May 9, last year, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, he stole £861,645.28 from David May & Co’s client account.

"He must have known it would be uncovered and must have spent much time in secret terror," announced Southwark Crown Court Recorder Andrew Campbell-Tiech QC.

"The public's perception of lawyers, which for some may be low, can only be damaged. It is a gross breach of trust."

Married May, who has grown up children, told police his lifestyle was "good to extravagant" and must repay £156,061 within six months or spend an extra two years in prison.

The City of London Police’s Economic Crime Directorate was called in by the Law Society's Solicitors Regulatory Authority after the lawyer confessed to the thefts at David May & Co, Edgware Road, Kingsbury, North-West London.

Prosecutor Mr. Brett Weaver told the court first-time offender May was a sole practitioner specializing in conveyancing, wills and probate.

He confessed to a Law Society investigator he duped his accountant into believing the huge transfers were lawful and after taking money from one estate used another £360,000 will to plug the gaps.

A total of 109 thefts of client money was identified during the period and between 2006 and 2008 May stole at least £10,000 per month.

"He said all the money went on personal living expenses and the running of the practice," explained Mr. Weaver. "The defendant said the firm suffered in the recession of 1988 and things got worse from 2005.

"His professional indemnity insurance costs increased and the firm was not earning enough to cover the expenses of the business and his personal costs.

"He says he intended to repay the money, but things went spiraling out of control. He used the accounts as his own personal bank account."

All his clients are covered by the Law Society's compensation scheme.

"He will carry the shame of what he has done to his grave," said May's lawyer Mr. Stuart Nolan. "It's a very sad day for Mr. May and his family."

Recorder Campbell-Tiech told May: "You must have lived this moment in your mind many times. I regret that you are here."

Guru Girl Defends Sex Charge 'Healer'

A self-styled healer dubbed 'The Guru of Suburbia' - accused of raping and molesting female followers - is the victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy one of his devotees told a jury.

Michael Lyons - aka Mohan Singh - 52, of Brondesbury Park, Kilburn, North-West London denies five counts of rape, two of sexual assault by touching and one by penetration on seven women between 1998 and 2008.

Graduate Sophie Reddyhoff, 28, who accuses her estranged family and the police of a plot to destroy Mohan denied she was a cult disciple who lured a victim into the defendant’s clutches.

“Noone was raped, noone was molested. People have come to court and lied about that,” the music and theatre promoter told Wood Green Crown Court.

She had travelled in a Bentley from Holmes Place health club High Street, Kensington, with her Sheffield lecturer landlady and the defendant to a party at a basement flat in Finchley Road, where Mohan allegedly penetrated the woman’s vagina with his fingers.

“She would have said: ‘Someone’s put their fingers up my fanny.’

“I would never invite anyone to be raped or molested. It’s an outrageous allegation,” blonde Miss Reddyhoff told the court.

“There was nothing in her behaviour to suggest that something untoward had happened and she stayed for another hour. I think it is outrageous someone can come along and turn the situation.

“In fact she thanked me for such a lovely evening. She said she had a great time.”

Reddyhoff abandoned PhD studied after a “life-changing” six months in India, where she met Mohan who introduced her to an alternative lifestyle to her cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis and alcohol existence.

“He’s an absolute expert in health, nutrition and the body and people will refer to him as ‘Dr’, but he doesn’t call himself a doctor.”

Reddyhoff’s parents bought a three-bedroom Sheffield house for her and her student brother, but she moved in with the divorced lecturer in her forties for more space.

“She was blaming men a lot for the mishaps in her life,” added Reddyhoff, who claimed her landlady enjoyed nights out in revealing clothes and had: “A lot of one night stands.”

The landlady was introduced to Mohan at the health club and received some treatment to her back and was only in a private room at the three-bedroom flat for “five to seven minutes” with the defendant, said Reddyhoff.

“I know she lied because I was there when she met Mohan. Mohan hasn’t raped anyone, it’s all lies.

“Women can be very manipulative. I think it’s disgusting.

“Thousands of people would stand up and say how much he has helped their health and well being. I have never seen him be remotely sexual in his approach to people.

“It has taken six years to come up with six rubbish stories.

“There is a campaign, like my parents to bring down Mohan, to try and destroy him.”

Perv Arrested At Underage Sex Rendevous

An Internet pervert, who believed an undercover police officer was a thirteen year-old girl he groomed for sex over five months, was jailed for fifteen months today.

Batchelor Steven Ledger, 36, of Leasowe Avenue, Leeds, Yorkshire, was arrested at the city’s train station (pictured) while waiting for ‘Lauren’ outside a McDonald’s restaurant.

“You engaged her in lurid and suggestive communications,” Judge Christopher Hardy told obese and balding Ledger at London’s Southwark Crown Court. “It was graphic in the descriptions of sexual intercourse of various types that you offered.”

Full-time carer Ledger was trapped by the Metropolitan Police’s Paedophile Unit which initially communicated with him on Internet social network site Bebo then via text and phone calls as he posed as an 18 year-old boy from York.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, plus seven counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between May 20 and October 22, last year.

Prosecutor Miss Usha Shergill told the court: “He indicated he wanted Lauren to travel to Leeds for sexual activity and sexual intercourse and was sexually explicit, lewd and lurid on many occasions.

“He said he wanted to shag her and take her virginity and asks if she would be willing to give him a blow job.”

Ledger also begged the imaginary 13 year-old for phone and text sex and told her she could stay with him as long as a week when they would also indulge in anal sex after a vodka-drinking session.

When police confronted Ledger outside McDonald’s he claimed to be his brother Michael and insisted he was waiting for his 16 year-old Chesterfield girlfriend.

He eventually admitted the truth, telling officers it was unlikely a 13 year-old girl would have sex with him after meeting “face to face.”

Ledger also confessed to police: “I’m sick in the head. I’m a pervert.”

Judge Hardy added: “There are often cases of sad lonely men living on their own in a flat somewhere and like Mr. Ledger the only way they can have any satisfactory contact with other people is electronically.

“There are an increasing number of young children who have unmonitored access to these sort of websites and there are people who target these websites to groom these children.”

The Judge told first-time offender Ledger, who takes care of his epileptic father: “It must have been a great shock to you when instead of Lauren turning up a police officer did.

“Sadly you are an isolated and lonely man who lives alone in a flat and you are the victim of great social isolation.

“Young children on the Internet are wide-open to exploitation.”

The Judge also imposed a ten-year Sex Offender Order and Ledger must also sign-on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Revenge Phone Theft Costs Teen His Good Name

A 19 year-old who has never been in trouble with the police was arrested after the revenge theft of a mobile phone from a younger teen he suspected of robbing his little brother.

Bricklayer Romeo Miller tried to headbutt the 13 year-old victim who chased him down after the phone was snatched in quiet residential Ryecroft Road, Streatham, South London, (pictured).

He pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to stealing the phone on July 1, last year. A more serious charge of robbery was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The court was told it was 3 pm and the victim was walking home from school when two suspects approached - including the defendant - who shouted at the schoolboy, putting his arm around his shoulder and asking to see his phone.

The boy later told police he "felt scared" and showed the defendant his phone, which was then snatched out of his hand.

The 13 year-old chased the defendant, who swung a punch at the youngster, then aimed a headbutt at the boy as they grappled.

Police were called and a description of Miller was circulated and he was arrested 45 minutes later.

He told officers the 13 year-old had robbed his younger brother a few weeks earlier. The £100 phone was not recovered.

"What you did was snatch a mobile phone from a thirteen year-old and threatened him after the event," Judge Roger Chapple told Miller. "You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."

He ordered the defendant to complete 60 hours unpaid community service work, complete 36 hours at an attendance centre and pay £50 costs.

Bogus Licence Lands Italian In Jail

An Italian who tried to hoodwink London police with a fake driving licence he bought for £100 in a back street shop has been jailed for four months.

Jobless driver Massimillano Mantovani, 44, was stopped by cops because his Lexus had no vehicle insurance near Elephant and Castle - where he bought the badly forged Italian licence.

He pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court (pictured) to possessing a false identity document on March 17, with intent to deceive.

The court heard officers immediately identified the licence - valid until 2019 - as a "poor quality" fake which Mantovani confessed to buying in a shop.

The first-time offender has never passed a driving test in his home country.

"You wanted to persuade people you could lawfully drive in this country when you couldn't," Judge Roger Chapple told Mantovani.

Romanian Cashpoint Crooks At It Yet Again

A crooked couple, caught by police with nearly one hundred cloned cards they used to raid cashpoints of £1600 in the heart of London’s financial district, were each caged for six months today.

Builder Sorin Vornicu, 22, and cleaner Nicoleta Buziuc, 23, both of Curzon Crescent, Barking, Essex pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal in Ludgate Circus on February 8.

Southwark Crown Court heard the Romanian-born first time offenders were spotted acting suspiciously at various bank cashpoints by a plain-clothed police officer – repeatedly using different cards in a small area.

When stopped 65 blank cloned cards with magnetic strips and four-digit pin numbers printed on them were found on Buziuc along with £1,000 cash.

Inside Vornicu’s underpants police found another 23 similar cloned cards and £600 cash.

Many of the cards were Australian, suggesting a well-planned international fraud, but the defendants insist they were mere “foot soldiers” sent out by organisers who manufactured them.

“This was an extensive and well planned fraud,” Judge Deborah Taylor told the pair, who have been in custody since their arrest, sentencing each of them to six months’ imprisonment.

Burglar Leaves DNA At Break-In

This is the face of bungling burglar Joe Fagan - who left tell-tale DNA at a break-in after cutting his hand smashing through a rear window - and is now starting a two-and-a-half year prison stretch.

The 30 year-old of Davis Way, Sidcup, Kent pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to burgling the residential property in nearby Erith on October 24, last year, stealing a Nintendo Wii and accessories worth £310.

Officers from Bexley's burglary squad investigated after the couple who live at the address returned home to find their rear kitchen window damaged and the property taken.

Police forensic scene examiners found traces of blood on the windowsill and Fagan, who is on the national DNA databse after earlier crimes, was identified and arrested on November 9.

Detective Sergeant Shelley Barrett said: "Burglary is a crime that can be both financially costly and emotionally devastating for victims and their families.

"In the absence of any witness to this burglary the blood sample obtained by the forensic scene examiner, which transpired to be a full DNA match for Fagan, was vital in securing a conviction against him in court."

City Stockbroker's Rogue Trade Cost Company Over £2 Million

A rogue City trader whose shares "gamble" resulted in £2million-plus losses was told he faces prison after admitting a cover-up involving over four million HSBC shares.

Jonathan Bunn, 31, of The Villiers, Gower Road, Weybridge, Surrey, a broker with Bishopsgate-based Lewis Charles Securities Ltd. hoped the share price he would pay after agreeing unauthorised sales would plunge - resulting in huge profits.

However, the price he had to pay rose, wiping out any potential profit, leaving the company in the red and Bunn's immediate boss Loizou Stavros with a £350,000 personal loss.

Prosecutor Mr. David Levy told Southwark Crown Court: "It was a gamble. The defendant hoped the shares would drop. He made no personal gain, but there was a massive loss."

Bunn pleaded guilty to falsifying a document required for an accounting purpose, namely a trade slip, which was misleading, false or deceptive regarding 4,350,000 HSBC shares between July 22 and 23, last year contrary to the Theft Act.

He denied that between July 20 and 31, 2009 he dishonestly abused his position by engaging in unauthorized trades resulting in losses in excess of £2 million, contrary to the Fraud Act and that count will lie on the file.

"The defendant has accepted the totality. He has acted improperly in his position as a trader by engaging in trades where he agreed to sell shares before he bought them," explained Mr. Levy.

"The defendant is responsible for these losses and caused a personal loss to the owner in excess of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds."

The Recorder of Westminster Geoffrey Rivlin QC told Bunn: "This is a very serious matter. You know I cannot make any promises and custody is the likely sentence.

"I don't want you to read anything into the fact I am granting you bail," added the Judge, bailing Bunn until June 24 for a pre sentence report on condition he resides at his recorded address, reports twice a week to police and cooperates with the probation service.

The Financial Services Authority were alerted to the rogue trades and alerted the City of London Police's Economic Crime Department.

Dancefloor Victim Scarred For Life By Drunken Woman

A woman who claims her bottom was groped on a pub’s dance floor by another drinker, who she left permanently scarred following violent retribution, has been caged for sixteen months.

The male victim needed seventeen stitches to his mouth after being repeatedly punched and kicked by her and an accomplice, who continued the attack outside.

Monika Friedrich, 26, of Charlgrove Road, Tottenham, North London pleaded guilty to assaulting 35 year-old Paul Krzywdziak, causing him actual bodily harm, at McGowan’s, Neasden Circle, Neasden, (pictured) on June 22, 2008.

Inner London Crown Court heard first-time offender Friedrich, who only gave birth to her first child four months ago, took part in a joint attack on the victim with a male friend still wanted by police.

The victim was struck about the face and back and escaped into the street, where he was followed by the defendant and her friend, beaten to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the face.

Mr. Krzywdziak suffered deep lacerations to his upper and lower lips, swollen eyes, bruising to his nose, back and shoulders and lumps to his head.

“ I asses you as a dangerous woman due to the nature of the injuries, the prolonged attack and the way in which you took out your fury,” Judge Diana Faber told Friedrich.

“You are a lady of wholly unpredictable character who inflicted serious injuries to your victims face.”

When quizzed by police the defendant insisted the victim groped her as she enjoyed a night out with friends, but was further angered after losing a front tooth in the initial fracas.

“He touched my bum and I said: ‘What are you doing? F*** off’,” Friedrich told officers. “I was drunk, I pushed him and he pushed me and I decided I would leave and continue the fight.

“I gave him a lot of kicks everywhere,” she admitted and CCTV evidence proved Friedrich returned to the victim three times to deliver more kicks and blows.

Judge Faber told the defendant: “You accept kicking him repeatedly while he was on the ground. You were responding to your fury at having your tooth knocked out.”

Friedrich almost collapsed in the dock when told she was going to prison and extra staff were alerted to escort her to the cells.

“She is suffering quite badly through stress as a result of these proceedings,” her lawyer Harry Bentley told the court. “It has been a thoroughly shameful experience for her.

“She admits her response to the events of that evening were completely over the top and says she is sorry these injuries were caused to the gentleman.”