UK News & Investigations

A FORMER double glazing salesman who is serving a 12-year prison term for committing one of the country's biggest ever frauds which netted more than £336 million has been ordered to pay just over £283,000 in criminal proceeds. David Ames, 74, was jailed in October 2022 following a three-month trial at Southwark Crown Court in connection with the failed investment Harlequin Property which saw several thousand mainly British investors lose pensions and life savings in a Caribbe

ENVIRONMENT Agency (EA) chiefs have praised themselves for shutting a huge suspected illegal waste site a year after first becoming aware of it - which allowed it to mushroom into one of the biggest in the country. An EA spokesman said: "In yet more forceful action, concrete blocks now guard the entrance to a field in the quintessentially English village of Stapleford Tawney, in unassuming stockbroker belt Essex. "A court agreed the Essex land could be closed off, preventing

TRAVELLERS and travelling showmen are cashing in on the UK housing crisis by cramming mobile homes onto their caravan sites and renting them out to anyone in an "illicit" property boom after years of claiming there is a drastic shortage of sites for their own communities. Sites across the country, meant to be occupied by people from the gypsy, traveller or travelling showmen communities under strict planning rules, are increasingly being let out to large numbers of non-travel

A FAR right extremist who set up a gun and explosives workshop on Britain 's biggest travelling showmen's site, as reported by UK News and Investigations last month, has been jailed for 16 years. A sentencing hearing at Kingston Crown Court concluded today, February 12 2026 at Kingston Crown Court. The court heard Thomas McKenna, 60, (above) was converting blank-firing Ceonic pistols imported from Turkey into deadly firearms and making expanding ammunition, for sale to organ

ALLEGED illegal large-scale dumping has carried on at a former traveller site by the M25 for a year despite the Environment Agency (EA) being alerted to it, it has emerged. Two men were arrested after allegedly being 'caught red handed' dumping tonnes of processed waste from a giant lorry onto the former traveller site at Stapleford Tawney, Essex. But, the EA confirmed tonight that it had been investigating the site for a year while the dumping allegedly continued. Thousands

A SENIOR Met Police firearms officer is facing allegations he promoted a mobile pizza business while on long-term sick leave from the force. PS Matt Skelt, of the Met's MO19 Specialist Firearms Command Unit, known as the 'Trojans', is accused of spending time on the family business across Essex. It is part of a Met Police apparent crackdown on officers allegedly carrying out other jobs while on sick leave or suspension. A public notice published ahead of a misconduct hearing

On the surface they looked like any other young Essex couple. But there was a reason why jobless Samuel De Vere-Hunt and his £13-an-hour receptionist girlfriend Rosie Wise were living in luxury in leafy Kelvedon Hatch, near Brentwood. The pair were involved in a multi-million pound drug and money laundering operation and covering their tracks via the encrypted EncroChat mobile phone system, which was busted by French cyber police in 2020. Unassuming looking De Vere-Hunt, 30

HOSPITAL chiefs are investigating after a dad-of-three died in front of other patients after waiting for over an hour complaining of chest pains in a busy A&E waiting room. Thomas "Tomboy" Casey, 34, (both above) from Basildon, died at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, on Friday, after being given painkillers despite his son begging staff for emergency care. A number of posters on Facebook said they witnessed the harrowing incident, which initially did not appear to be taken s

A GUN and explosives workshop was being secretly run on Britain's biggest travelling showmen's site. Blank-firing pistols imported from Turkey were converted into deadly firearms, for sale to organised crime gangs across London and the south east, in a static caravan transformed into a makeshift workshop, Kingston Crown Court heard. The unit was equipped with drills, lathes and welding equipment to carry out the illegal conversions and to transform the ammunition into deadly

A "TRAVELLER Town" linked to the families who occupied the illegal Dale Farm development continues to face police investigation due to alleged feuds and suspected links to international organised crime. Rathkeale, in County Limerick, (above) saw its population swell over Christmas as traveller families, who spend the year travelling across the UK, Europe and further afield, returned to attend weddings and funerals. The country town has one of Ireland's biggest Irish traveller