Police resign over trip to the seaside

Two police officers who were investigated over claims that they used police cars for a trip to the seaside have resigned. Two other officers were fined 13 days’ wages at a conduct hearing, which ended yesterday, and a fifth resigned last week over an unrelated matter.

It had been claimed that the officers for Gwent Police, who were on duty, were competing to see who could travel the farthest from their station in Blackwood, South Wales. They reportedly took photographs on their mobile phones at Porthcawl and Barry Island.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigated the allegations. The IPCC commissioner Tom Davies said: “This investigation has shown that the public can have confidence that the IPCC and the Police Service will vigorously tackle misconduct.”

All four officers at the hearing were charged with behaving in a way likely to bring discredit to the Police Service, while one was charged with failing to treat a member of the public with courtesy and respect. Three were charged with being neither open nor truthful.

Drug charge for crash-landing pilot

A pilot who flew a convicted drug smuggler in a light aircraft, which crashed in a garden, has been arrested on suspicion of cannabis cultivation, police said.

Officers seized 300 cannabis plants in a raid on the home of Sid Clark. Mr Clark, 47, of Barming, Kent, was bailed until April 23 pending further inquiries.

The passenger in the plane, who was named locally as Tim Des Vignes, was on day release from Blantyre House in Goudhurst, which is a resettlement prison. Des Vignes, 53, was coming to the end of an eight-year sentence for importing drugs. He has now been moved to a prison with a higher security level.

The Ministry of Justice has started an investigation.

The pair were in a Cessna 172 aircraft, which came down in trees at Farthing Common, Lyminge, near Folkestone, during foggy conditions. The aircraft, which had taken off from Rochester airport, crashed at 3.15pm on Saturday.

Mr Clark and Des Vignes suffered minor injuries in the crash.

Network Rail faces huge fine for delays

Network Rail faces a fine of several million pounds for a four-day overrun of engineering works that closed the busiest railway line in Britain over Christmas (Ben Webster writes).

The fine, imposed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), is expected to exceed the fine of £2.4 million that the company incurred for work delays in 2006.

Passenger groups believe the fine will have little impact on Network Rail because the not-for-profit company will simply be returning some of the subsidy it gets from the Department for Transport, although a fine could affect the bonus paid to directors.

The ORR is also expected to suggest areas of improvement.

McCartney divorce

The divorce settlement between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills may be made public. Mr Justice Bennett, the High Court judge who heard the couple’s arguments, will decide how much the former Beatle must pay his ex-wife. He may release details of his judgment because of public interest in the case.

New Deal problems

Almost half the unemployed who find work are back on jobseeker's allowance within six months, a report by the Public Accounts Committee says. Two thirds of the 2.4 million annual applications for the benefit are repeat claims. MPs said that the New Deal was not providing enough long-term work.

Hunt for killing clues

Detectives are asking people who knew Harvey Richardson, a retired librarian of Aspull, near Wigan, who wrote a confession to a murder, to come forward. A picture has been released of how Mr Richardson, who died aged 77, would have looked at the time that Lorraine Jacob, 19, was murdered in Liverpool in 1970.

Just another day

Employees have no right to take tomorrow off despite advice from websites that February 29 is an extra and unpaid day. Gill Howard, an employment law specialist, said staff must work the entire calendar year, not just 365 days a year. “When there is a leap year, there are 29 calendar days in February, not 28.”

M&S charges for bags

Marks & Spencer is to charge its customers for plastic bags for food purchases from May 6. Money raised from the sale of the 5p bags will go to Groundwork, an environmental charity. The decision comes after a trial in which use of carrier bags was cut by 70 per cent when charges were introduced.

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