Jul/090
Steven Gerrard Charged With Affray - CCTV Footage
Liverpool Crown Court heard today that Marcus McGee was on the receiving end of a ‘boxer’ style attack. The 34 year old was repeatedly punched by Gerrards friends before Gerrard himself joined in and threw a ’succession of well aimed uppercuts’ in his direction.
David Turner QC, prosecuting, said: “there was “no doubt” Mr Gerrard struck Mr McGee and said the issue for the jury to decide was whether he was acting in self-defence. We do not say that Mr Gerrard is normally an arrogant man, we don’t say that he is a bully. What we do say is that that night he just lost his self-control and joined in an attack which should never have taken place. He let himself down.”
The trial concludes with Gerrard cleared of affray.
CCTV Footage of the incident…
Jul/090
Manchester City: Emmanuel Adebayor talks ongoing
After suffering a season of verbal abuse from a large section of the Arsenal following his wish to join AC Milan at the end of last season, Adebeyor has now found himself in that same position again and if Arsenal are shrewd enough they will recognise that his value of £25m may be accurate and the time to say goodbye.
The strongest indication that Adabayor will be on his way is that a work permit, as expected, has been granted but the Togo international is yet to agree terms on a lucrative contract at Eastlands. A tight-lipped Mark Hughes would only say: “Talks are ongoing at the moment. We are still in discussions.”
Tuesday’s news conference for new signing Carlos Tevez served only to create more speculation that City are ready to splash out on at least 3 new stars including a defender and midfielder. “It may well be that opportunities will present themselves. We still have areas we want to strengthen,” he said.
Jul/090
LaToya Jackson on Michael Jackson’s ‘Murder’
Many of us have seen in the past week or so LaToya Jackson weeping over the front pages of our newspapers. We read the heartbreaking tales of times gone by but the story/claim LaToya made about her brother Michael Jackson being murdered made a lot of people throughout the UK think sinister thoughts.
However, the Daily Mail claims LaToya was not only paid for the interview but was also told beforehand that she had to include a ’sensational’ element to her story. CNN originally broke the news that LaToya was paid for the story but were unaware that she was asked to include the claim that her brother was murdered. The Daily Mail reporter describe LaToya as ‘candid’.
LaToya who is now 53, was a Playboy model in the early 1990’s after being disowned from her family for claiming Michael acted in an unacceptable way with children. There were strong rumours that she was paid for that story as well which adds further weight to the suggestion that she was paid for this latest accusation.
“I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start,” the Mail quoted LaToya as saying over the weekend. “Not just one person was involved; rather it was a conspiracy of people.”
Jul/090
Unemployment figures in the UK top the 2.3 million mark
As the recession takes as strong a grip as ever, more and more firms are cutting costs in every way possible and the most effective way of doing that is of course to cut jobs. A “worse than expected” set of figures indicated that unemployment has rose by a new record 281,000 to 2.38 million, in the three months to May. The statistics released by the Office for National Statistics said.
The jobless rate increased to 7.6%, the highest in more than 10 years.
But the number of people claiming unemployment benefit increased by 23,800 in June to 1.56 million which was less than analysts had forecast.
Jul/090
Local Governement: One in Five Local Authorities Report Growing Pressure on School Places
There are a few reasons for this but the recession seems to be the cause of most of them.
1) Parents are turning their backs on private education for their children, choosing instead to use the money they have saved up as a contingency for bills and general living costs.
2) The housing market slump has meant less people are moving house meaning a miscalculation in the size of the catchement area.
As a result, the government has announced that they are to throw £200m into the education kitty to combat this shortage. The government is set to announce £200m to overcome the shortage of places as well as a sharp rise in free school meal requests.
The LGA’s survey indicates that that 20% of councils are experiencing this pressure currently and another 13% are advising that they too will soon be experiencing the same situation.
Jul/091
Estate Agents Pay Buy to Let Landlord Compensation
Large capital-based solicitors, Foxtons, were told by High Court Judge Mr. Justice Mann that many of the charges they imposed on their landlords were unfair. This, after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had decided that the charges broke some of the consumer regulations back in 2008. The OFT then asked the High Court to uphold their decision on the basis that the Foxtons small print included clauses which could be considered a “trap”.
The three main clauses that Mr. Justice Mann said were unfair were:
that Foxtons should be paid full commission for selling the property to the tenant, regardless of whether or not it was them who placed the tenant in the property
that Foxtons estate agents could continue to demand “renewal” commission from a landlord if a tenant stayed on past the initial tenancy period whether they were involved in the extended stay or not
that, even when Foxtons had sold a property on behalf of the buy-to-let landlord, they continued to request commission payments from the landlord for the remainder of the agreed period
The Office of Fair Trading, obviously delighted with the decision, exclaimed: “This ruling sends out a clear and unambiguous message that businesses offering services need to ensure unexpected or surprising terms are not hidden away in small print. Contracts need to be written in clear and straightforward language with important provisions, particularly those which may disadvantage consumers as in this case, given prominence and actively brought to people’s attention.”
The complaint made against Foxtons were largely down to a general protest from landlords about the way in which they were being treated by their agents. They recognised that the OFT had powers to act under the 1999 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract regulations and Foxtons were disciplined.
When ruling, the judge said landlords would be “astonished” to find they had to pay Foxtons commission for the sale of a property, even if the agency had played no part in the deal. It is believed this problem could be a lot more widespread than initially though and could effect hundreds of thousands of buy to let landlords throughout the UK.
If you are reading this and you have any buy to let properties and feel you have been misled or had unfair charges brought to you, you may want to contact Buy to Let Compensation who can help you make a claim.
Jul/090
Wirral Partnerships Homes leave residents living in unstable conditions
The WPH are undertaking major refurbishment on many of the homes in the Wirral, aiming to install over 8000 kitchens and 7000 bathrooms. However, the Wirral news has been inundated with complaints from residents saying that their houses have been left in disrepair, work was not finished and that they have been left in unstable conditions.
Many are being left with no heating in the cold months, workers aren’t coming back to finish work started and no one can get a return call from the WPH. Bidston Councillor Harry Smith has contacted the WPH, but they are not acting on his complaints, and if they are they are taking their time in doing so.
It is thought the shabby work is due to the WPH’s decreasing budget, but people should not be expected to live in these conditions and still have to pay rent.
Jul/090
Rascals to close and leave consumers out of pocket
The owners of Rascals Nursery World in St Helens have filed for bankruptcy leaving consumers hundreds of pounds out of pocket. Trading Standards have been inundated with calls from customers who have purchased goods at the store, only to find it closed down before they have received them. Trading Standards confirm they are doing the best they can, are urging those who bought goods on a credit card to claim from their providers and that they will put customers on the creditor list just as soon as they know who the receivers are.
Jul/090
New Bill to stop Shares Short Selling
The Short Selling and Bank Accounts Bill is being brought to the commons for debate in June, and is hoped will stop short selling and under hand tactics by lenders. Those who sell shares in a bid to later buy them back at a cut price will hopefully be banned if the bill is brought in. Ministers who are backing the bill say that short selling is an immoral practice, and if the bill is brought in it will require banks to offer retail customers current and savings accounts free of charge for holding the accounts when they are in credit.
Jul/090
Consumers in Abergele complain about the post
Consumers in Abergele have complained about their post arriving late, going to the wrong address, and miserable postmen.
The problem arose after a resident sent out a protest letter to sign. All letters came back to the local campaigner signed and with comments stating that since their regular postman was given a different area, they have had countless different postmen who delivered as late as 6.30pm, if they even came at all. She took these letters to the radio station Clwyd West AM, Vale Road post office in Rhyl, Chester main post office, and her county councilor. Most residents think it is an outrageous service, especially considering that Royal Mail have hiked up prices.
Royal Mail have issued an apology to the Abergele residents and have asked them to contact customer services if they have any other problems.
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