Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cars dodging airport park fees attacked
VANDALS have attacked holidaymakers’ vehicles parked on residential streets close to an airport.
Around 10 cars had tyres slashed, windows smashed and were daubed with graffiti near Luton Airport.
Thugs scrawled “Too tight to pay for airport parking”, “No respect for residents” and “Selfish git” on vehicles left on Hollybush Road in Luton, Beds.
One local, Samir Hissaund, 32, said someone smashed the windows of a car left outside his home for four weeks.
He added: “It’s a regular occurrence for people to park on our street when they go to the airport. I’ve seen upwards of 10 cars with writing on them.”
Luton council is considering permits. Daily airport parking costs up to £25. A Sex-mad former police officer who used a force’s £2million helicopter to get his kicks as a Peeping Tom has been jailed.
Depraved Adrian Pogmore – nicknamed “PC Pervy Poggy” by pals – used the high-power camera on the South Yorkshire Police chopper to capture images of naked sunbathers and a swinger couple romping.
The shamed 51-year-old had admitted four charges of misconduct in a public office after using the £800an-hour chopper for “sexual spying”.
And he sobbed yesterday as a judge told him: “Quite literally you considered yourself to be above the law. Nobody is above the law.”
Last week, two police pilots and two police observers were cleared of aiding Pogmore. The court heard workmates called him the “team deviant” over his nude sunbathing.
The naturist and swinger, from Rotherham, South Yorks, had even boasted of having a van with a mattress in it, in case he “got lucky”.
Sheffield crown court had heard that Pogmore was married when he secretly joined website Fabswingers and went to swingers club La Chambre in Sheffield.
However, he kept his swinging from his ex-wife and a new partner.
Judge Peter Kelson QC said he accepted no one else in the air support unit had been involved. He told Pogmore: “There was a period of five years when you spied on and recorded naked people from 1,000ft. You were a rogue police officer in the unit.
“So strong were your sexual urges you were willing to take, and did take, a substantial risk of being detected by your colleagues. You were not doing your duty as a police officer. Instead of deterring crime or detecting crime, you were committing crime.
“You grossly invaded people’s privacy and grossly misused an expensive piece of police equipment.”
He added that policing in the UK was by “public consent” and the public had to be able to trust the police. Pogmore wiped away tears as he was sentenced to 12 months. The previous day, he had spent hours washing his “passion wagon” – a converted Vauxhall Vivaro fitted with blinds.
Pogmore’s activities came to light in 2014, when his ex-wife told police about him filming the swingers.
He was disciplined and sacked but police did not find a video until he contacted a welfare officer two years ago to ask for some personal possessions from a drawer in a canteen.
Seven discs containing illicit footage were handed to bosses and he was charged with misconduct.
The court was told Pogmore was previously of exemplary character and had commendations, having saved the life of a boy of 11 during his 22-year police career.
Defence barrister John Ryder QC said he had lost the job he loved.
The court also heard his ex-wife had urged leniency, suggesting he was affected by the stress of his job. But prosecutor Kate Batty said: “There is little other reason to keep recordings than sexual gratification.”
She added that a housewife filmed sunbathing naked had felt “violently sick” and upset when she found out.
And a woman filmed sunbathing in 2012 told officers she gave up work because of the stress.
She said: “Every time I have to deal with police it plays on my mind that other officers have seen the footage of me. If you can’t trust the police, who can you trust?”