Tortoises taken
FOUR giant tortoises have been stolen from a college.
Dorset Police are investigating the thefts at Kingston Maurward College, near Dorchester, which happened overnight on Thursday. The thieves gained entry to a shed on the site and took four Sulcata tortoises - three female and one male.
The animals are called Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise, all aged 11, and 24-year-old Jeffery. CONSUMERS face a multimillion-pound hit if there is a no-deal Brexit because of a “likely increase” in the cost of card payments between the UK and the EU, technical papers released by the Government reveal.
Cross-border payments would no longer be covered by a “surcharging ban” that prevents businesses adding an extra levy when people use a specific payment method.
The ban prevents businesses from charging customers for paying by the likes of PayPal or debit or credit cards, which the Treasury characterised as “rip-off fees”.
UK citizens living in Europe also face the possibility of losing access to their pension income and other financial services.
The warnings are contained in 24 technical papers released yesterday covering preparations consumers and businesses should take in case the UK and EU cannot agree a deal before Britain leaves the trade bloc in March.
The Treasury had said that the card charges, which were banned in January, cost Britons £166 million in 2015.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab reiterated the Government’s conviction that it can and will agree a deal with the EU. But he told reporters that plans were being made to recruit an extra 9,000 staff into the civil service to deal with Brexit, in addition to 7,000 currently working on preparations.
A further 1,000 more Border Force staff are to be recruited, more than triple the additional 300 previously planned for.
Mr Raab dismissed “misinformation” about what may happen in the event no deal is reached by March, saying his stress levels were “fine”.
Claims by Amazon’s UK boss that there could be civil unrest within weeks of a nodeal Brexit are “not credible”, he added, saying: “There’s no suggestion of bringing in the military.”
The first raft of papers included banking, medicines and clinical trials, nuclear research, workplace rights and farm payments. They represent around a third of a total of some 80 technical papers due to be released by the end of September.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Raab’s speech was “thin on detail, thin on substance and provided no answers to how ministers intend to mitigate the serious consequences of leaving the EU without an agreement”.
He added: “We are eight weeks out from the deadline for reaching an agreement. Ministers should be getting on the job of negotiating a Brexit deal that works for Britain, not publishing vague documents that will convince no-one.”
Lending and deposit services, insurance and annuities – which people rely on for a regular pension income – are among the financial products which expats could struggle to access, it has been suggested.
The Irish border is also mentioned – with firms trading across it told to “consider whether you will need advice from the Irish Government about preparations you need to make”.