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Man sentenced for £12,000 fake Covid treatment scam
A British man who made thousands by selling bogus Covid-19 treatment kits around the world has been sentenced to a 10 month suspended sentence and 170 hours community service. Frank Ludlow, 59, of East Marden, Chichester, pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court to attempting to supply an unauthorised medicinal product, possessing an unauthorised medicinal product and assembling an unauthorised product. Ludlow was first arrested on 20 March after the US Customs and Border Protection Agency in LA first intercepted one of Ludlow’s packages on 18 March. It contained 60 separate kits labelled as “Anti-Pathogenic treatment”, sent from the UK. The US FDA determined the product to be an unapproved drug and alerted the MHRA in the UK.
Vehicle theft across Britain rises 56% in four years
Thefts of motor vehicles in Britain have risen by 56 per cent in four years, new figures show. Some 152,541 vehicles were stolen in 2018-19 compared with 97,609 in 2014-15, according to police data obtained by RAC Insurance. All but three of Britain’s police forces that responded to Freedom of Information requests recorded an increase in thefts. The largest rises in terms of vehicle numbers were in the force areas of Kent (up 12,550 to 40,726), Metropolitan Police (up 9,635 to 30,773) and West Midlands (up 5,677 to 10,372). Six forces saw thefts more than double, including Suffolk (from 347 to 945), Surrey (from 661 to 1,543) and Greater Manchester (from 3,018 to 6,223). Only Lincolnshire, the City of London and Police Scotland recorded a reduction.
Universal credit claimants face 11-week delays
Hundreds of thousands of universal credit claimants have been forced to wait for around 11 weeks to receive benefits, a watchdog report warns. The National Audit Office (NAO) finds that although the government has significantly improved the proportion of claims paid on time – from 55 per cent to 90 per cent in three years – “unclear” communication from the Department for Work and Pensions has caused people with complex needs to “slip through the net”. In 2019, new claimants who were paid late faced average delays of three weeks in addition to the five-week wait for a first universal credit payment. Around 6 per cent of households – amounting to 105,000 new claims – waited around 11 weeks or more, according to the report.
Bison are being brought back to Britain
Bison are being introduced to a British woodland to restore an ancient habitat and its wildlife, conservationists say. The move is part of a £1m project led by Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust to help manage Blean Woods near Canterbury, Kent. European bison are the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that would have once roamed Britain and naturally managed the habitat, conservationists add. A closely-knit herd of four European bison will be introduced into a fenced enclosure away from public footpaths, in what is the first time the animals have been introduced to a nature reserve in the UK. They will be within a wider 500 hectare (1,200 acre) area which will also use other grazing animals such as Konik ponies to create a varied and healthy habitat.