Syndrome Sparks Theft Addiction

An Asperger’s Syndrome sufferer, obsessed with stealing strangers’ personal effects, has been warned he faces more time in prison for his countrywide crime spree.

Van Elvin Courchene, 31, (pictured) of North Road, Stoke-on-Trent enters colleges, and hostels in his hunt for simple items, which he feels gives him his only connection with other people.

He pleaded guilty at London’s Blackfriars Crown Court to possessing two false identity documents, namely two U.K. driver’s licences, at St. Christopher’s Village hostel, Borough High Street, Southwark on May 9.

Prosecutor Miss Abigail White told the court staff became suspicious after catching Courchene searching through the hostel’s luggage room.

He insisted he was simply looking for his own bag and when it was checked by staff they found the two licences and called the police.

Officers at Peckham Police Station quizzed Courchene.

“He said he had a habit of collecting things,” added Miss White.

Courchene is currently under the supervision of North Staffordshire Probation Service after being sentenced to supervision orders for similar crimes.

He received a three-year order at Oxford Crown Court for burgling student accommodation at a local college, helping himself to identity cards, concert tickets and foreign currency.

More recently he received a one-year order after being caught rifling through the luggage room at Baden-Powell House hostel, Kensington, West London.

Courchene is currently serving a three-month prison sentence for theft imposed at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court.

“He has a sense of resentment. He is intelligent, but stymied and throughout his education was bullied and shunned and cannot bear that,” said Courchene’s lawyer Mr. Nicholas Cooper.

“It seems people believe he is stupid, but he is not stupid and feels bitterly disappointed,” added the lawyer. “He has a feeling of huge annoyance at suffering such inequality.

“He struggles to understand very basic principles and his conduct puts him on the outside and somehow contact with others can only be achieved this way.

“Behind all this is a bright young man who plainly has potential,” explained Mr. Cooper. “He is thinking about this all the time and is trying to control his impulses.”

Judge John Hillen announced: “There are those with the same syndrome who do not commit crime.

“It passes the custody threshold and he is in breach of two community orders. I could impose a lengthy further period of imprisonment.”

Courchene was remanded in custody until January 21 for probation reports.

Builder Crushed To Death In Basement: Boss In Dock

An employer, whose building worker died during a basement excavation at an exclusive Knightsbridge property, faces a date at the Old Bailey after admitting safety breaches.

Nadeem Aftab, 46, of Nuffield Road, Edmonton, Oxford, admitted a summons at City of London Magistrates’ Court brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

Brazilian-born father-of-nine Arlindo Visentin, 58, died on June 13, 2007 after part of a basement wall collapsed on top of him at 27 Wilton Row.

Aftab admitted failing to ensure the health, safety and work of all his employees by failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work during underpinning of the property.

Following a three-day inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court between March 18 and 20 a verdict of accidental death was recorded.

Magistrates committed Aftab on bail to the Central Criminal Court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.

Firm Fined For Airplane Worker's Painfull Fall

A Gloucester airplane maintenance company have been fined £7,200 after a mechanic plunged six feet onto his face – suffering serious injuries - while working on a Virgin jet at Heathrow Airport.

Messier Services Ltd. of Meteor Business Park, Cheltenham Road East, Gloucester admitted a summons, brought by the Health and Safety Executive, (HSE) at City of London Magistrates’ Court.

The employee was replacing the nose landing gear on an A340 aircraft at the Virgin Atlantic Airways Hanger, Exeter Way on September 1, 2008 when he fell from a pallet resting on a forklift.

The court heard Gloucester man John Nicholas, 59, and a colleague were using a fork lift truck in an attempt to align the barrel of the main landing gear fitting with the socket on the underside of the aircraft.

During the procedure Mr. Nicholas realised the alignment was not correct and in an attempt to correct it kneeled down on an unsecured pallet designed to support the landing gear, two metres above the floor.

However, the forklift truck supporting the pallet reversed suddenly causing the pallet to drop to the floor.

Mr. Nicholas fell with the pallet, fracturing his kneecap and suffering significant injuries to the left side of his face.

Since the incident he has needed a number of operations to his mouth and teeth.

The HSE investigation found the work was not properly planned and the pallet being used did not have a proper adjustment to help align the landing gear and the socket on the underside of the aircraft.

Messier Services Ltd. admitted failing to ensure the safety at work of all its employees, including Mr. Nicholas.

The company was also ordered to pay £11,820 costs.

Following sentencing HSE inspector Steve Kirton said: “This company did not properly plan this work even though it was a core part of its operations.

“Mr. Nicholas has suffered severe injuries to his face and knees purely due to a lack of planning.

“Messier should have either found a way working at ground level or provided a safe way of working at height with access to the right equipment.

“Employers need to plan work and assess the risk to people not only in their own premises, but also when the work takes place in another company’s property.”

Fake-Medicines Five: Not Rookies

The five businessmen, accused of Europe’s largest-ever fake pharmaceutical plot, which involved importing bogus Chinese-manufactured life-saving drugs, are all vastly experienced in the industry and knew what they were doing, a jury were told.

Charges were brought following a two-year investigation by the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency, part of the Department of Health into Consolidated Medical Supplies Ltd. (CMS).

The company, of Unit 14, Sherrington Way, Lister Road, Industrial Estate, Basingstoke, had its Wholesale Dealers Licence revoked by the MHRA on January 8, 2008.

The charges relate to 'Casodex', used to treat advanced prostate cancer, 'Plavix', a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots and prevent heart attacks for angina patients and 'Zyprexa' a anti-psychotic drug prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.

The five defendants are: Ian Gillespie, 58, of The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford; Peter Gillespie, 64, of High Street, Bovingdon, Hemel Hempstead; Ian Harding, 58, of Lower Westwood, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire; James Quinn, 69, of Holloway Drive, Virginia Water, Surrey and Richard Kemp, 61, of School Lane, Y Waen, Flint Mountain, Clwyd.

Croydon Crown Court was told Kemp ran a pharmaceutical company called ‘Kemco’ from his Flintshire home and an Irish company ‘Kemco Pharmaceutical Ltd.’ of 29a Dartry Road, Rathgar, Dublin.

Both companies held wholesale dealers’ licences to supply therapeutic drugs.

“Richard Kemp knew these products were coming from Singapore at the very least,” prosecutor Mr. Andrew Marshall told the jury.

“He obtains the medicines and sends them to the Irish outfit,” added Mr. Marshall.

The Irish company provided “storage and logistics” and it’s bookkeeper confirmed Kemp was the only employee.

“Richard Kemp is very experienced in the pharmaceutical trade,” said Mr. Marshall. “We are not dealing with novices here.”

Quinn is linked to the plot through his ownership of Camberley-based World Medical Ltd., of Unit 6, Stanhope Road, Camberley Business Centre, the court was told.

The company was also the holder of a wholesale dealers’ licence and together with Peter Gillespie, Quinn established an Internet pharmacy and was taking steps to set up a Liberia-based firm with a Swiss bank account.

Peter Gillespie, his brother Ian and Harding worked together to open CMS, which rose from the ashes of ‘Discpharm’ – wound-up in 2005.

“Peter Gillespie has many years experience in the pharmaceutical industry,” Mr. Marshall told the jury. “He is a clever man who has sought to operate in the outer reaches of the industry.

“He wants to make a profit to live a comfortable life of some luxury and seems to allow very little to get in his way to get what he wants.

“He is well versed in every devise to protect his position.”

‘Discpharm’ – run by Peter Gillespie - was an approved parallel importer of drugs from abroad and Ian Gillespie handled the sale ledger side and controlled the stock.

Harding was also a senior manager within the company until the Royal Bank of Scotland placed it into administration with “large debts” and Peter Gillespie made bankrupt.

However, Peter Gillespie continued to live a lavish lifestyle, driving Bentley’s, Ferrari’s and top-of-the-range Mercedes owned by a Luxembourg-based company.

“It was his secret off-shore confidential company,” explained Mr. Marshall, who told the jury Peter Gillespie hid assets in the company to dodge creditors.

Less than a month after Discpharm’s demise CMS was formed on June 13, 2005.

“Peter Gillespie was behind it, but it was not in his name,” said Mr. Marshall. “CMS were able to buy back the machinery owned by Discpharm.”

This machinery allowed the plotters to re-label the bogus medicines for the U.K. market, the jury were told.

Ian Gillespie guaranteed two loans, which bought nearly £50,000 worth of equipment and Harding was a director of CMS.

“It was Peter Gillespie who organised CMS through a number of people so there would be no record of his involvement,” explained the prosecutor.

All five have pleaded not guilty that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, they conspired together and with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and holders of Intellectual Property Rights in pharmaceuticals by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines.

They also deny two counts each of selling or supplying the three drugs without authorisation and selling or supplying counterfeit goods, namely the three medicines, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.

Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order between July, 2005 and June, 2007, following his bankruptcy.

Pensioner Groped Teen For 'Birthday Treat'.

A 68 year-old pervert, who gifted himself a “birthday treat” by repeatedly fondling a friend’s 17 year-old daughter when she innocently allowed him in to use the toilet, has dodged prison with a suspended sentence today.

Odd job man John Victor, of Leatherhead Road, Chessington, South-West London groped the “scared” schoolgirl’s breasts and forced his hand between her legs – repeating the attack when allowed back into the house to apologise.

The married first-time offender pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to two counts of sexual assault at the address in Sandy Lane, South Cheam on January 4.

Prosecutor Miss Claire Davies told the court Victor – who initially denied the charges and only pleaded guilty two days before the trial – knew the girl’s family for many years and had regularly worked with her father.

“They had been working together that day and returned to the family address to collect some tools,” said Miss Davies. “The parents then left to take the girl’s brother to an exam and the defendant left.

“A minute later the defendant rang the doorbell and asked to use the toilet. He approached the complainant on the couch and said: ‘It is ages since I had a cuddle.’

“He grabbed her around the waist and put his hand on her breast over her clothes,” explained Miss Davies. “He lifted up her top and licked and bit her nipples.

“She tried to push him away and said she was scared. He put his hand over her vaginal area and rubbed while kissing her neck.

“He was saying: ‘This is a nice birthday treat for me’ and was groaning. He put his fingers inside her trousers, but got no further.”

Victor left and the girl showered and changed her clothes, but he returned ten minutes later, asking to be allowed to apologise.

“Victor stood behind her and placed his hands on her breast area and said: ‘I’m sorry for what I have done, but I am still doing it’.”

The defendant, whose wife of 44 years supported him in court, then sat in his car until the girl’s parents returned and joined them in the house for a cup of tea and a chat.

Later, the girl told her mother what happened and after speaking to a school counselor the police were informed and Victor arrested.

“She says she was scared, disgusted with herself and felt like a prostitute,” added Miss Davies.

Victor’s lawyer Mr. Rupert Hallowes described his client’s offences as: “an appalling aberration of judgment.”

He told the court Victor, who drove aid to war-torn Kosovo in the 1990’s, was dogged by health problems and was even rushed to Kingston Hospital with a suspected heart attack during his first probation interview.

He had a heart attack twenty years ago, is almost blind in one eye and also suffered back and chest problems.

He downplayed his actions during a second probation interview.

“This defendant was not willing to take full responsibility for what he pleaded guilty to,” said Mr. Hallowes. “He found it difficult to come to terms with his criminality.

“He is a man, who after forty-four years of marriage is incapable of coming to terms with the acts of January 4.”

Judge Nicholas Ainley sentenced Victor to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and placed him on a two-year supervision order, which includes attendance at a community sex offender group work programme.

“After a lifetime of work you do this and do this to somebody whose family trusted you and she trusted you,” Judge Ainley told Victor. “It was an appalling breach of trust.”

Victor must also sign-on the sex offenders’ register for at least five years and was made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, prohibiting him working with anybody under eighteen years old.

“Anything like this again and it is straight inside,” the Judge told Victor.

Gang Behind Illegal Immigrant 'College' Jailed

A disgraced solicitor and an elderly couple who ran a bogus college have been jailed for helping potentially thousands of unqualified illegal immigrants stay in the U.K.

When police raided the Academy College of Education (ACE) and Academy College of Training and Recruitment (ACTR) they found ten bedsits in a building described by a judge as: "An epicentre for the manufacture of fraudulent documents."

Solicitor Adeyinka Adeniren, 40, of Thurlow Street, West Norwood, South London (pic.3rd l.) was sentenced to eight-and-half years.

Tiamiyu Bello, 75,(pic.l.) and his wheelchair-bound wife Christina Bello, 67,(pic.2nd l.) both of South Croxted Road, Dulwich, South London were sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

The Nigerian gang specialised in helping fellow-countrymen and women fraudulently obtain leave to remain in the U.K and furnished them with worthless qualifications - mostly in the healthcare industry.

"You exposed the most vulnerable members of society to your scheme," Judge Heather Baucher told the gang at Croydon Crown Court.

"They were exposed to employees who on the face of it seemed to be trained when that was not the case.

"How many sick and ill people have been treated by people who thanks to your fraudulent acumen had no skills whatsoever?

"Only you know if it was hundreds or thousands that beat a path to your door."

Adeniren - who was admitted to the Solicitors' Roll despite being caged for fifteen months for conspiracy to obtain U.K. passports twenty years ago - boasted to police he had made £500,000 from criminal Legal Aid work.

"You were the central player. You referred clients to the Bello's for documentation," Judge Baucher told the solicitor. "There was no end to the documents you were prepared to use.

"You were a man prepared to stop at nothing. You had total disregard for your office of solicitor.

"You are a disgrace to your profession and have brought shame on the profession as a whole."

The father-of-two claimed to run Walworth-based Julius Ceaser Solicitors' alone, but employed illegal immigrant staff, who paid no tax or national insurance contributions during the four-year scam.

"You masterminded this whole operation and you were not satisfied with the half a million you made from criminal work," added Judge Baucher.

ACE based in a run-down building in New Cross road, New Cross (pic.r.) by the Nigerian-born Bello's who settled in the U.K. in 1963 and have been married 46 years.

"There was nothing to suggest it was a college.....Eight to ten people were living there, it was divided into bedsits from basement to attic.

"The purpose was to make money and help your fellow-Nigerians," Judge Baucher told the Bello's. "Your reputation spread far and wide.

"Such was the reputation of this so-called college people who did not know each other would talk on the bus about how to get not only cheap certificates, but false certificates.

"You were regularly providing certificates and courses for Home Office qualifications. They paint a truly horrific picture."

A string of employment agencies - specialising in healthcare - received applications from ACE students who held the bogus qualifications they had never studied for.

Lambeth-based Allied Health Group and Lewes-based Cooksbridge Care were just two of the companies shown certificates from ACTR.

"You gave not one jot of thought to that," added Judge Baucher. "You left a catalogue of destruction in your wake. You failed society in your greed. You did all this for money."

The Bello's provided fraudulent qualifications in care assisting, home care, food hygiene, health and safety, PR, business and computer studies, marketing and O and A levels.

These qualifications made it easier for students to gain Home Office approval to remain in the U.K. and were backed up by bogus references provided by the Bello's.

"ACE and ACTR were no more than a sham........The whole sham was an exercise in deception," said the judge."

All three defendants denied, but were convicted of conspiring to facilitate a breach of immigration law between January 1, 2004 and November 30, 2008.

The Bello's were also convicted of conspiring to possess articles for use in fraud, namely City and Guild Certificates, ACE certificates and other educational qualifications between January 16, 2007 and September 19, 2007.

Jamaican DJ Jailed For Dodgy Passport Scam

A popular local DJ on an Afro-Caribbean radio station has been jailed for twelve months after obtaining and using a U.K. passport in the name of a mental health in-patient.

Jamaican-born Wayne Gayle, 47, of St. Alban’s Road, West Bromwich was employed by Birmingham’s ‘New Style Radio’ and was also a well-known DJ at pubs and clubs in the area.

The father-of-four, who entered the U.K. on a six-month visitor’s visa in September, 2000 pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to dishonestly obtaining a passport, by deception.

He is currently also in Home Office detention and subject to deportation proceedings.

Prosecutor Mr. Hamish Reid told the court a passport application in the name of Mark Wynn, who was born in Hackney, East London in 1974, and claimed to be living in Birmingham was received in July, 2003.

Three years later the application was repeated after Mr. Wynn claiming the original passport had been lost.

Suspicious immigration and passport officials traced Mr. Wynn to the mental health wing at Homerton Hospital, East London and discovered he had never personally applied for a passport.

Gayle was circulated as wanted on the police national computer and was arrested by officers from West Midlands Police on October 12.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police and the U.K. Borders Agency collected him.

It emerged Gayle employed a variety of tactics to remain in the U.K. for so long.

He applied for student status in January, 2001 and when this was refused in September that year he appealed the decision.

His appeal was eventually dismissed in June, 2004 and he was ordered to leave the country.

When quizzed by immigration officials Gayle claimed he fled Jamaica, leaving his family behind, because he owed money to gangsters and was stabbed in the back when he failed to repay the debt.

He insisted he only used the passport, which others helped him obtain, so he could return home and take care of his family after their house was set on fire.

His wife and children are all now in the U.K., the youngest two born in this country.

“He fears if he goes back to Jamaica he will be killed,” said Mr. David Smith, defending.

The lawyer insisted Gayle’s wife and children did not receive the right to live in the U.K. on the strength of the bogus passport, but could not explain how their status was obtained.

“U.K. passports are valuable documents that give the right to travel and that was a right to which you were not entitled,” Judge Daniel Flahive told Gayle.

“You used that passport to come and go as you wished and this was a deliberately acquired passport.

“I am told your wife and four children are here legitimately, but I do not understand how this is.

“It is likely you will be automatically deported,” Judge Flahive told Gayle. “People have to be deterred.”

Sex Attack In WC1: CCTV Released

Police have released this CCTV image of a suspect being hunted for terrifying attacks on two young female students – one of whom he sexually assaulted.

The first victim, aged 19, was pounced on in Torrington Place, Bloomsbury, Central London on October 19 and grabbed around the waist.

The assailant tried to lead her away, but eventually fled the scene with the student’s bag.

The next day a 21 year-old woman was grabbed in nearby Ridgmount Gardens and threatened with a knife.

She was forced into Chenies Mews and sexually assaulted at knifepoint.

Officers believe the same person carried out these attacks and are hunting a black man, aged between 22 and 25 years and clean-shaven.

During the robbery he wore a baggy, dark, faded, charcoal-coloured hooded top and the following day he wore a black leather or waterproof bomber-style jacket with a hood.

Anyone with information about these incidents or who recognises the man in the CCTV is urged to contact the Metropolitan Police’s Sapphire Unit on 020 7421 0282, alternatively, to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Nightclub Doorman Execution: Police Appeal

Police are still appealing for witnesses and information that will catch the killers of the head doorman of a top West End club – executed by a motorcycle gunman when returning home in the early hours.

Bogdan ‘Tony’ Paduret, 29, of Tillingbourne Gardens, Finchley Central, North London was shot in the head while sitting in a car's passenger seat at 6:00am on November 27.

The Romanian-born keep-fit enthusiast ran the door at the Mayfair Club, Dover Street and after finishing work at 5:30am was given a lift home in a silver Vauxhall Corsa.

When the car carrying Mr. Paduret arrived at his home a pillion passenger got off a motorbike that had pulled up minutes earlier.

The suspect produced a handgun and shot through the passenger window four times, killing Mr. Paduret instantly.

An incident room was opened by the Metropolitan Police Service's Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC) at Hendon.

The investigation is being lead by Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline Sebire.

DCI Sebire said: “We are doing extensive enquiries around Mr. Paduret's lifestyle.

“He was a keen member of the David Lloyd gym in Finchley, hard working and very popular. We would like to speak to anyone who knew Mr Paduret.

“We are very keen to speak to anyone who saw the motorbike, particularly in the area of Tillingbourne Gardens or perhaps in the area of Dover Street.

“We know that both the driver and the pillion passenger were dressed in dark clothing and the pillion rider may have been wearing a jacket with a reflective stripe up the zip.

“This was a cold blooded and planned murder.

“Mr. Paduret was without doubt targeted and we now need to establish why so that those responsible can be put before the courts and held to account.”

The victim's mother, Mariana Paduret, flew into London from her home in Romania and met with DCI Sebire to formally identify her son.

She said: “To me Tony meant everything. He had such tremendous love for people, he would call his friends and relatives brothers and sisters.

“He was incredibly generous and forgiving and at the same time very modest about it.

“He had an acute sense of justice and he took pride in everything he did.

“I have this great sense of loss. Words cannot express how dearly he is going to be missed by all of us.

“This tragedy could happen to anyone. I hope that whoever has any information, which might assist the authorities, will have the sense of duty, the courage and the generosity to come forward.

“Please do help us to find the person who took my son away from me.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Incident Room at Hendon on 020 8358 0400. If you wish to remain anonymous please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.