Wednesday 22 August 2012

Paedo Nursery Assistant Filmed Up Girls' Skirts



A trusted child care assistant secretly filmed up young girls' skirts while supervising them and placed a secret camera in the ladies toilet at a suburban nursery.


James Hoffman, 32, of Purley Knoll, Purley also secretly recorded young children in his next-door neighbour's garden splashing about in a swimming-pool.


He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court today to eight charges of voyeurism for his own sexual gratification and four counts of possessing indecent photograph's of children.


Hoffman was arrested after a member of staff at Wallington's Gaytime Nursey (pictured) discovered a secret camera hidden in the ladies toilets on May 23.


The voyeurism counts relate to two sixty minute video recordings - one filmed under a desk - taken some time between 2004 and 2005 of children aged between five and eight years-old at an after-school club.


Other recording include twenty-five minutes of children playing in his neighbour's garden plus footage of youngsters and staff in the toilet at Gaytime Nursery.


Prosecutor Mr. Andrew Ramsubhag told the court: "Mr. Hoffman was employed for the past eighteen years at a number of children's nurseries as a child care assistant and classroom assistant.


"From 2004 he has secretly recorded on numerous times children aged five to eight year-old by filming up their skirts and recording their genital area.


"From 2009 there were recordings in the staff toilets, recording female members of staff using the lavatory, and video footage of children playing in a swimming pool in the neighbour's garden.


"He was caught when a staff member discovered a device in the lavatory, which was used to record staff members, and Mr. Hoffman admitted planting the device and making the recordings."


Police were called and Hoffman's home, which he shares with his mother, was searched.


"A number of cassettes, dvd's and computer files were seized at his home."


The first-time offender was remanded in custody to be sentenced on September 20.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Dementia Carer "Poisoned" Patients To Get Good Night's Kip


A senior carer at a Southern Cross nursing home drugged six dementia patients with anti-insomnia, anti-depressant and anti-psychotic pills so she could get a good night's sleep during her shift, a jury were told yesterday.


The patients, four women and two men, who usually wandered around during the night, often had to be taken to bed in wheelchairs after the unprescribed doses and were unsteady on their feet and suffered slurred speech.


Mirela Aionoaei, 37, of Pikestone Close, Hayes routinely shoved two chairs together to form a makeshift bed during the night shift and drugged the patients to ensure she would not be disturbed, Harrow Crown Court heard.


"The residents were being poisoned, of that there is no doubt," said prosecutor Mr. Guy Dilliway-Parry. "The defendant liked to sleep when on duty. Why else put two chairs together?


"She was seen to administer on many occasions over a considerable period of time and the residents would fall asleep almost straight away.


"A sleep so deep they would have to be taken to their beds in wheelchairs."


Aionoaei (pictured) has pleaded not guilty to six counts of administering a poison or noxious substance to the six residents of Ashwood Care Centre, Derwent Drive, Hayes between July 1 and December 31, 2010.


There were twenty-two residents on the dementia ward - aged between 58 and over 100 years-old - and Aionoaei was the senior member of staff in charge and the only one permitted to dispense medicine as a trained and authorised health professional.


"They all suffered from mental health conditions that left them vulnerable and unaware of their surroundings," explained Mr. Dilliway-Parry. "They could do very little for themselves.


"Some would walk around at night and needed hourly checks, but Aionoaei would put two chairs together and go to sleep, even if the residents were walking around.


"Her priority seemed to get some sleep herself."


A suspicious colleague began observing Aionoaei because the residents only became excessively drowsy when she was on duty and she was keen to get them into bed only thirty minutes into her shift.


"She was observed approaching residents with a glass of orange juice in one hand and observed putting a small cream-coloured tablet in the residents' mouths and they would all be asleep within five to eight minutes.


"She had taken something from the pocket of her overalls and the drugs trolley remained untouched in the nurse's station.


"Other staff noticed the residents were very sleepy after being administered medication by Aionoaei. They would be unsteady on their feet and slur their words more than usual."


On January 31, last year the suspicions were reported to police and hair samples were taken from a total of nine residents - one at their post mortem - and six returned positive for the presence of unprescribed drugs.


Among them were a fast-acting sleeping pill, which usually works for six hours, a drug prescribed to patients with depression and panic attacks, which has a side-effect of drowsiness and an anti-psychotic drug used to treat restlessness.


"They were detected in the hair samples and had been administered over a considerable period of time," added the prosecutor. "It shows they were being drugged."


When questioned by police Aionoaei admitted pushing two chairs together, but denied she slept, and claimed the reason for turning off the light near her was to prevent residents being disturbed.


"She denied ever taking medication from her overall pocket and giving it to a resident."


Trial continues………….

Monday 20 August 2012

Compo Win Illegal Immigrant Jailed For "One Man Crime Wave"


An illegal immigrant "one man crime wave" - who recently received £17,360 compensation from taxpayers after his Home Office detention was ruled unlawful - was locked-up for two years today for a string of new offences.


Joseph Mjemer, 29, of High Street, Yiewsley, West Drayton who has approximately thirty convictions, arrived in the UK as a stowaway in 2003 and immediately claimed asylum, using five aliases and at various times insisting he is either Algerian; Moroccan; Italian; British or stateless.


The High Court awarded him the compensation in November, last year for the period he had spent in "administrative custody" while the Home Office tried to work out where he was from.


"You could be described as a one-man crime wave that continues committing very annoying offences that frightens and distresses the public," Harrow Crown Court (pictured) Judge Stephen Holt told bearded body-builder Mjemer.


"You have built up in the last few years numerous convictions, covering numerous offences.


"I take into account your difficult childhood, but where that was, who knows? Even you do not seem to know and I take into account that you spent four-and-a-half years in Home Office custody and the High Court ordered your release.


"You have been given numerous chances and have failed to comply. The time has come for nothing other than a custodial sentence."


Mjemer was convicted of assaulting two 17 year-olds on an underground train, plus two counts of threatening behaviour towards a member of tube staff and a schoolteacher with a group of children.


He was also convicted of unlawfully possessing anabolic steroids, driving a motorbike while disqualified and uninsured, handling a stolen iPhone and failing to attend court hearings on four different occasions.


These offences put him in breach of a twelve month suspended sentence for handling a stolen car and this was activated. He was also disqualified from driving for three years.


"You have a complete disregard for court orders and you have used up most of your mitigation," Judge Holt told the defendant. "You have been given opportunities and not taken advantage of them."


Mjemer's lawyer Mr. Scott Wainwright told the court: "He has difficulty with anger management. Keep in mind this young man's difficult upbringing.


"He was brought up in the western Sahara, in Algeria and this has had a detrimental effect on his mental health and contributes to the volatile way he seems to behave."


The lawyer claimed anti-psychotic and anti-depressant drugs Mjemer received in Home Office detention effected his memory and ability to keep court and probation appointments.


Mjemer told the judge from the dock: "Probation have failed to help me, they have not referred me to the Hillingdon mental health unit. I have been kicked out of three surgeries because I cannot control myself. I can't hear the word 'no'."


Sunday 19 August 2012

East End Twins Jailed For Financing Brother's Muslim Terror Training


Two Muslim twin brothers, who raised cash for terror training in Somalia via their religious stall, have been jailed for three years each.

Mohammed Shabir Ali, 25, (pic.top) and Mohammed Shafik Ali, 25, (pic.bottom) of Bohn Road, Whitechapel admitted the offence and will also be subject to a ten-year Notification Order under the Counter Terrorism Act when released.

They raised cash through a 'Dawa' religious stall, which they sent to their older brother in Somalia, knowing it would fund terrorism.



The Old Bailey heard the brothers were originally arrested in June 2011 and later released without charge. 



However, Counter Terrorism Command detectives were able to continue examining various items seized in a search of their family home at the time of their arrest. 



This included a copy of terrorist publication '44 Ways to Support Jihad' by the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, which the brothers admitted they had studied.



Detectives also found an MP3 player, which contained a recording that the twin brothers had made of a conversation with their older brother Mohammed Shamim. 



Shamim had travelled with two others from the UK to Nairobi via Dubai and then travelled onwards to Somalia in 2008 in response to a call for foreign fighters by Al Shabaab.



In the conversation, recorded in a telephone kiosk, the three brothers discussed how the twins would raise money and send it to Somalia. 



Their brother tells the twins that if they are struggling for money, £300 to £400 should be enough.



They are also heard discussing the whereabouts of a sum of £1,065, which the twins gave to Shabaaz Hussain to transfer out to Somalia. 



Shabaaz Hussain was arrested at the same time as the twins in June 2011 as part of the same police investigation.

He was jailed for five years and three months in March after admitting seven counts of fundraising for terrorist purposes.



In the telephone recording, the twins also ask their brother Shamim about his life in Somalia.



Shamim tells them: “So basically they're calling for - they need Muhajiroun..they need more Muhajiroun.” 



Shamim talks about being able to buy guns in the shop and tells his brothers that he sometimes sleeps with his gun, adding: “They make us polish it. They make us do all sorts of training. Training is very hard my brother.” 



He later adds: “…Allah has chosen people to come here and he chose me and I'm very grateful to be here and it's a privilege to be here….”


The court heard that detectives also recovered a mobile phone from Bohn Road, which showed the twins had contacted their brother Shamim in Somalia.



Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, Senior National Coordinator Counter Terrorism, said: “These two men were actively engaged in raising money in London to fund terrorist activity in Somalia. 



“This is a serious terrorist offence because it is the support and fundraising network that allows terrorism to survive.



“We hope that today's conviction sends a clear message to anyone involved in this type of activity that they can expect to be bought before the courts.”

Saturday 18 August 2012

Landlord Jailed For Tenant Naked Pics Threat


A landlord, who threatened to post naked pictures of a tenant's wife on the internet if he did not pay arrears of £350, was jailed for eight months yesterday.


Bus driver Mark Mamerga, 36, of Alton Road, Croydon had seized tenant Lubos Osuch's laptop in lieu of payment and after finding the nude photos said he would distribute them online, identifying the victim's wife.


The father-of-two pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to blackmailing Mr. Osuch between May 12 and 19, last year.


Recorder Stuart Trimmer QC told the first-time offender: "This is not a threat to embarrass just the person who is not paying, but that threat to expose the whole family has put great pressure on the victim and his wife.


"If you threaten to put pictures of the man's naked wife on the internet then you can expect she will not be best pleased about that.


"Blackmail is a serious offence and there must be a level of deterrent.


"This course of conduct must have involved considerable distress, not only to the man who was not paying, but also to his family.


"They were put under strain by your threats to expose the female partner to ridicule by placing an image of her naked body on the internet.


"You were going to hold this family up to ridicule."

Friday 17 August 2012

Special Constable Wins Race-Hate Appeal



An off-duty special police constable, accused of shouting: "Why don't you f*** off back to Somalia," during a late-night penalty fares row with a train ticket inspector has won his appeal appeal against the racially-aggravated offence.


Witnesses on the train insisted Luke Smith, 27, flew into a rage on the 3am service when his two drunken friends were ordered to pay the £20 on-the-spot penalty and also called a female revenue protection officer a "black bitch".


Betting-shop manager Smith, of Carey Gardens, Wandsworth, who patrols the West End and Soho, told Croydon Crown Court today his words were not motivated by racism, but a desire to remind the Somalian inspector how fortunate he was to live in this country.


"I told him: 'This would never happen in Somalia' because I know Somalia to be a lawless place. I never used racist language towards them.


"I have travelled the world and I believe we have it very lucky here in the U.K.


"Obviously they were black, but I would have said it to anyone. If I ever thought anyone would take it as offensive I would never have said it."


Smith (pictured) was condemned by the Metropolitan Police after he was convicted of racially-abusing the 48 year-old man, fined £300, with £685 costs, ordered to pay £100 compensation to each inspector, plus a £15 victim surcharge.


He was facing disciplinary procedures brought by the Directorate of Professional Standards and Commander Pete Spindler said: "This type of appalling behaviour will not be tolerated on or off duty from any member of staff."


CCTV had captured Smith and his two friends falling down an escalator at Gatwick Airport on October 5, last year, but he insisted they were not excessively drunk and had arranged to purchase tickets on the train.


He quickly identified himself as a police officer when the inspectors demanded penalty fares in cash.


"He obviously had a problem that I represented authority. I challenged him because he was not following the rules and regulations," Smith told the court.


"I told him this would not happen in Somalia because it is a lawless state.


"I was there as a peacemaker, trying to calm it down. I would never tell anybody to go back to any country."


Witnesses also say they heard Smith shout: "Go back to Africa" and "F*** off you Somalian pig."


An off-duty full-time police officer intervened, but Smith identified himself as a PC James and gave a false shoulder number.


"It was stupid of me, but at the time he did not properly identify himself and I did not know who he was."


Insisting "some of my best friends are black, asian, muslim" Smith added: "I will not accept being called a racist, I feel insulted. It is insulting to me, my friends and my family.


"I enjoy the fact London is such a diverse place and I can immerse myself in the different cultures.


"I think the people on the train have just picked what they wanted to hear."

Thursday 16 August 2012

Cop Cleared Of Punch And Cover-Up Bid


A police detective - who also runs a child nursery with his wife - has been found not guilty of punching a sacked ex-employee in the face and perverting the course of justice.


Detective Constable Narinder Bargota, 46, (pictured) was accused of trying to convince her to drop the complaint against him with a "sob story" it was alleged.


Nursery manager Kirndeep Gill, 28, claimed she was told to: "Fuck off. Fuck yourself. Leave," when sacked from the Willowtree Marina Day Nursery, West Quay Drive, Yeading by Bargota and his wife Meenu.


Miss Gill had told the Met officer, based in Hillingdon Borough, the ratio of staff to children was too low and she was unhappy about lies the couple told parents concerning what the children - aged six months to four years-old - were eating.


She later reported the nursery to education standards watchdogs Ofsted.


Miss Gill told Harrow Crown Court she heard a thud near her vehicle after parking near her home and found the defendant leaning against a garage door when she investigated.


"He strolled over to her and without any preamble punched her to the right side of her face," said Mr. Neil Guest, prosecuting.


Bargota was arrested at home on August 22, refused to answer questions, but in a prepared statement denied assault.


Bargota, of Dane Road, Southall was unanimously acquitted by the jury of assaulting Miss Gill on August 11 and perverting the course of justice on August 31.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Jamaican Illegal Hijacked Brit's ID In Decade-Long Benefit Scam


An illegal immigrant, who hijacked an ex-pat's identity and got away with a £47,000 bogus benefits claim for ten years, was jailed for sixteen months yesterday.


Jamaican-born Annette Harrison, 45, was refused leave to remain in the UK after arriving in 2001, but successfully used another woman's birth certificate to illegally claim taxpayers' money and educate her daughter, who arrived with her.


Harrison, of Warwick Road, Thornton Heath pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to five counts of making false statements and representations to obtain benefit, namely jobseekers allowance, and housing and council tax benefit from May 2002.


The scam was exposed when the real Colette Williams, 37, - whose identity the defendant had successfully used for a decade - applied for a British passport in Washington DC.


"The passport matching that birth certificate was issued by the British Embassy," explained prosecutor Mr. Richard Doman. "That rang alarm bells and video evidence of the defendant was compared to the passport photo."


On February 28 Harrison's flat was raided and the Department for Work and Pensions found correspondence in her true identity.


She continued to insist she was the true Colette Williams and told investigators her twenty year-old daughter was her niece. Both have now been served with Home Office deportation papers.


No record was found of Harrison (pictured) entering the UK legally and while claiming benefits she obtained £47,592, mostly made up of jobseekers and housing benefit payments.


"Right from the beginning benefits have been claimed under a false identity," added Mr. Doman. "The real Colette Williams is angry and frustrated because of this.


"There is a black mark against her name on the computers of every government agency and she will be flagged up whenever she comes back to this country.


"She now has atrocious credit in the UK and to use her words she feels her 'life has been taken away' from her."


Harrison's identity had been questioned by the department for two years before the passport evidence.


"It was met by a wall of insistence by this defendant that she was Colette Williams."


Harrison's lawyer Mr. Yogain Chandarana said his client had been targeted by identity fraudsters, telling the court: "There are people who will prey upon those who live in the grey or black economy to provide them with the documents they need."


He said Harrison lived rough with her daughter for two years after arriving in the UK and were then offered shelter by a man, who inflicted "physical and sexual abuse."


"She got hold of these identity documents to try and put a roof over her and her daughter's head and knew there was a time bomb above her, but felt she had no other alternative.


"She has lived within that dark economy, trying to keep her head below the radar, leading a difficult life.


"In this country she has not shoplifted, robbed or stolen, apart from us the taxpayers."


Recorder Niall Quinn QC told Harrison, who sobbed throughout the hearing: "When you came to this country you found yourself in difficulties and fell into the company of people who were professional benefit and identity fraudsters.


"I do not regard your offending in the top. most serious category, but the transactions were fraudulent from the beginning and you knew you were not entitled to those benefits and it continued for ten years.


"Another aggravating feature is that it involves identity theft and has caused stress to the genuine Colette Williams."


No order was made for compensation or costs.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Racial Equality Bosses Fleeced Charity


A director and a treasurer of a taxpayer-funded racial equality charity plotted together to fleece a local authority out of £47,910 by falsely billing for a string of diversity-related services.


Mukham Bajwa, 68, of Park Crescent, Erith, a £46,000 a year director of the Greenwich Council for Racial Equality (GCRE) and Hardev Dhillon, 76, of Woolwich Common, a serving magistrate during the scam, forged invoices and received a total of sixty-four cheques.


Both pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to conspiring to defraud the London Borough of Greenwich between October 7, 2004 and June 12, 2008.


Today they each received twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and were ordered to pay £6,000 costs each to the Royal Borough of Greenwich and £1,000 costs each to the Crown Prosecution Service.


Additionally they were each given a 150 day curfew order, prohibiting them from leaving home between 8pm and 6am.


Between 2005 and 2011 the GCRE - founded in 1968 - received £1.4m from the council, but the scandal forced its closure last year.


Cheques were paid into Dhillon (pic.top) and his wife's accounts and genuine companies and individuals were used to give a veneer of authenticity.


They created bogus invoices for interpreters and translators at an equality open day; racial equality and Human Rights Act training; conferences; focus group meetings and a dvd explaining the Indian game kabaddi.


All the losses have been repaid by the defendants, who tried to negotiate an immunity from prosecution in return, and the council financed the £27,300 costs of the investigation.


"These defendants were in a position of trust and these defendants had control of expenditure," said prosecutor Mr. Simon Sandford.


They resigned in 2009 and a subsequent audit revealed numerous financial discrepancies.


In May 2010 they were confronted by the GCRE. "The defendants made no admissions."


They eventually agreed to repay £36,887, conceding there were some discrepancies.


"The defendants attempted to make it a condition of the repayment that no legal action would be taken against them,' added Mr. Sandford.


"It had been discovered that they had created a large number of fraudulent invoices and the bogus invoices purported to be from genuine companies and individuals who had provided goods and services to the GCRE.


"The defendants signed and counter-signed a total of sixty-four cheques and they were written in favour of either Mr. Dhillon or his wife.


"No one other than these two defendants had to physically see the cheques and considerable efforts must have gone into the creation of these invoices.


"They also used genuine companies and individuals to give the invoices a veneer of authority.


"The invoices, stamps and cashbooks were all consistent with each other.


"Under the cover of racial equality the defendants invented bogus claims for events that did not take place such as the services of interpreters and translators for an open day.


"There was also a Bexley council race equality initiative for which invoices were produced for teacher and parent training in equality, race relations and the Human rights Act.


Non-existent conferences such as 'Raising Cash From The Rich' were invented by the pair to generate invoices.


"The impression they were keen to make was that they were working hard and providing a very good services," added Mr. Sandford.


They successfully made £2,200 from expenses generated by producing an instructional dvd explaining the rules of popular Indian contact sport kabaddi, plus more money from a kabaddi contest at an anti-racism festival and hiring a hall for kabaddi training.


Further sums were paid by taxpayers for a 'facilitator' at a race focus group meeting.


"The invoices were professionally done, they look real," said the prosecutor.


Bajwa, (pic.bottom) who had been with the GCRE since 1983 and a director since 1990 was arrested on April 13, last year.


Dhillon, who stood for Socialist Labour at the last General Election, was arrested on March 15, this year and when questioned admitted producing fake invoices.


"He said they did this to put money into an account for an independent racial equality group because they believed government cuts would result in the closure of the GCRE."


No such bank account was ever opened.

Monday 13 August 2012

Teen Gets Ten Years For Killing Disabled Guest


A teenager, who stabbed a drunken partially-sighted father-of-two to death during a petty argument, has been caged for ten years.


Jordan Kelly-Flattery, 19, (pic.top) of West Close, Hitchin was cleared of murdering Stondon man Graham 'Snowy' Snowden, 36, at the house in Milestone Road, Hitchin in the early hours of January 8, but convicted of manslaughter.


"You took that knife to the house to have it available if necessary to use it as a weapon," the Recorder of Croydon Warwick McKinnon told the defendant. "It is very clear to me that it was your knife that you did carry from time to time."


During the trial Kelly-Flattery, whose brother Sean Flattery is serving life for a Hitchin knife murder, claimed the weapon belonged to Mr. Snowden (pic.bottom) and was dropped as the pair fought in the hallway.


"Killing with a knife in these circumstances does aggravate the offence," added Judge McKinnon.


During the two-week trial the court heard that Mr. Snowden, enjoying a rare night out, ended up at the address after his drinking-pal Shane Howard brought him there.


Mr. Snowden, who used a walking-stick after a serious car crash several years ago, had difficulty rising from the sofa and was twice pushed back down by the defendant, which sparked a row between the pair.


He was stabbed in the hallway by Kelly-Flattery, who told the jury he was acting in self-defence after Mr. Snowden pulled the knife from his waistband and it dropped to the floor.


The defendant fled via the living-room window, dumped the knife in a wheelie bin in Westmill Road, and with the help of a friend hid his clothing on the edge of Brocket Hall Golf Course.


"Mr. Snowden was a vulnerable man, but it was not a case that he was targeted," said the judge. "He did have difficulty getting about, his movement was slow due to brain damage and he had been drinking heavily and had taken cocaine that day.


"The killing was relatively spontaneous and I cannot be sure there was in intent to kill, given how quick the incident was.


"Mr. Snowden protested about what he saw as your obnoxious behaviour, pushing him back down on the sofa and the use of that knife was utterly despicable."


The victim suffered a stab wound to his left and arm and a fatal wound to his chest, severing his aorta.


Kelly-Flattery's QC Mr. Alan Kent said: "There is no evidence the defendant knew of Mr. Snowden's disability or vulnerability or targeted him in any way.


"The pushes were not done in a deliberately vicious or provocative way, but it was either as the defendant said to stop Mr. Snowden falling over or a playful push taken in the wrong way by the victim.


"There was aggression by Mr. Snowden towards the defendant and this was broken up and he was asked to leave the premises, but rather than leave he returned."


Judge McKinnon did not deem Kelly-Flattery a dangerous offender, who must serve a minimum term, and told the defendant he would be released after completing half of the sentence, minus time already served on remand.