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According to local police, one man from Burnley is chiefly responsible for pushing up the overall crime rate in the area and making Burnley in Lancashire the burglary capital of the UK. Statistics released by the Home Office show that the borough has the highest number of burglaries (2,154 a year) than any other city or town in Britain and a good part of this high figure has been pinned the crime sprees of 19-year old Michael Craig from Burnley.

After he managed to collect 101 convictions for crimes such as shoplifting, breach of ASBO, theft, criminal damage, common assault and attempted robbery; Craig has now been incarcerated, serving a prison sentence of at least three years.

The government has recently launched a campaign to crack down on the amount of online scams targeting UK residents. In order to deal with the issue, government bosses assembled a specialist team of cyber-enforcers and secured extra funding from Trading Standards.

It is estimated that 3 million people a year are affected by cyber-scams, and that these usually happen via scam emails. Losses due to this kind of cyber-crime currently stand at approximately £3.5 billion.

The government is investing £4.3 million in the training of specialist trading standards enforcers to cover every region. Once appointed and trained, the teams will focus on online ticket scams and websites taking payment for goods or services but delivering nothing in return.

According to recent reports, a new police scheme has been rolled out in Kent which involves criminals being made to apologise to their victims face-to-face in an attempt to curb re-offence rates. Victims will have the opportunity of explaining the impact the crime has had on their lives, and also to demand answers to their many questions.

Whilst many will probably criticise the scheme believing forced, insincere apologies from criminals to be the only upshot, I firmly believe that the idea is an excellent one. Police statistics indicate that criminals who have to confront their victims are less likely to reoffend, and this seems fairly accurate in a number of cases.

Not only will the criminals be forced to see their victims as real people, but those who have been stolen from, assaulted or worse will have the opportunity to say something back. Victims may get financially reimbursed or the satisfaction of knowing the criminal is locked up, but rarely do they get to take back some control and kick back against the helpless frustration caused when a crime is committed against them.

A crime-reduction scheme named ‘Operation Drystone’ launched by North Yorkshire Police in October 2008 has started to see some impressive results. This rapid-response scheme involved more of a high-visibility police presence in the area in an attempt to drive down crime rates and reduce anti-social behaviour in the area and ultimately improve the quality of life for North Yorkshire residents.

Crime rates are now significantly down compared to the previous year, for example:

• Auto-crimes have reduced by 27.8 per cent
• Firework-related anti-social behaviour dropped by 34 per cent
• Overall crime figures for the area are down by 10.5 per cent

In research compiled by insurance company Endsleigh, the city of Hull in East Yorkshire has been named the number one car crime hot-spot in the country. The results for other UK cities look like this:

1. Hull
2. Nottingham
3. Bradford
4. Manchester
5. Doncaster

On the other end of the scale, the towns of Swindon, Cheltenham, Southampton, Solihull and Bangor emerged as a few of the safest places for motorists to leave their cars.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for motorists. The government has also released figures demonstrating that car crime offences had fallen by over a fifth in the last year alone, but motorists are still being advised to keep their valuables out of sight, fit an alarm or other security system, and only park in well-lit, secure places.

The two men who were flying their Piper PA-31 who came down in a field on Friday near Oxford airport have been named as pilot Anthony Corr, 54 and Richard Leonard, 45 from Chipping, Police have said as part of the on-going investigation. The wreckage of the plain will be taken to “AAIB” Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Hampshire, but police have said that the recent snow and the plains remote location have hampered the recovery operation, and police also said “it’s not possible to speculate” at this time on the possible causes of the accident at this stage.

On Friday 15th January four people who were involved in setting up a bogus college to allow illegal immigrants to gain entry to the UK. Police raided a property in Rotherhithe in south east London where they found evidence to support the climes of the bogus college existence along with over 2.65 million in cash stuffed underneath a bed in the property. Each of the four members who are said to be from the far east, were renting the property and were sentenced to seven years each, giving a total of 25 years imprisonment at Croydon crown court. Police have said the four people have netted over 4.5 million in total, but are glad they have caught the perpetrators before they had a chance to escape.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have made claims to the Arizona police that the two remaining giraffes that used to be owned by Michel Jackson are in neglect. The animals that were originally part of Michel Jackson’s Neverland Ranch are now being kept by Tom and Freddy Hancock of the Voices of the Wild Foundation in the Banjoko Wildlife preserve. PETA went to the Arizona police after learning that two of the four giraffes had died and had concerns that the remaining animals have been neglected and wanted a full investigation. Tom and Freddy Hancock have issued a statement saying the animals are not neglected and are well taken care of, but did admit that two of the four giraffes had died from unknown causes. The Arizona police have since launched a full investigation on the matter to see if any crimes have been committed.

At the weekend there was another killing of law enforcement officers in the US, but this one was every bit as unusual as it was tragic. Four officers were gunned down whilst working on their laptops at a café in an incident investigators are still trying to figure out the motives for.

In a further twist, a day later the number one suspect Maurice Clemmons had his house surrounded by armed SWAT teams while a negotiator tried to coax him out without any shots being fired. Unfortunately, that plan seems to have failed with the news that the suspect was shot and ‘possibly killed’ in the stand-off. Why they cannot confirm the status of the suspect is a bit strange to me, but maybe they have good reason.

No motive has been made public, but it is known that the shooting of the four police officers, among them one female officer and a sergeant, was most likely planned and carried out with accuracy – detectives have been quoted as saying that the bullets “hit their targets” and that collateral damage had not occurred. Whatever happened, it seems this guy held a grudge against the police doing a bit of work outside of the office on a quiet Sunday morning, with fatal consequences.

Coercion of witnesses seems to have transcended boundaries to find itself on the internet, after 2 people have been sent to prison for producing a rap video in which they threatened witnesses to a murder.

The rappers, Ishmael McLean and Rowan Simon, threatened anyone who may have come forward with evidence regarding the shooting of Jason Johnson in London. In the video, published on YouTube until it was taken down, they warned that those who gave evidence would be next in line to be shot.

The video was also posted on MySpace and Facebook in a clear attempt to intimidate those who would see justice done.

In addition to this charge, McLean was also jailed for possession of ammunition.