BBC Bargain Hunt star charged by police under Terrorism Act
In a statement, the Met Police said: "Following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service, he has been charged with eight counts of failing to make a disclosure during the course of business within the regulated sector, contrary to section 21A of the Terrorism Act 2000."
It added: "The investigation has been carried out in partnership with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in HM Treasury, HMRC (the organisation that regulates the art sector), and the Met's Arts & Antiques Unit."
Ochuko Ojiri is one of the experts from Bargain Hunt on the BBC (Image: BBC)
Bargain Hunt star charged by police under Terrorism Act
According to the Mirror, the charges against the 53-year-old expert relate to the period between October 2020 and December 2021.
The Bargain Hunt star, who is apparently the first person to be charged with a specific offence under section 21A of the Terrorism Act, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, May 9.
On a Q&A section for the antiques show on the BBC website, he said that he is 'absolutely obsessed' with collecting contemporary art, paintings, prints, sculpture and drawings.
He once joked: "No other industry would accept my rare mixture of sarcasm, cynicism and passion. Ha-ha!"
Over a decade ago, the dealer opened up a vintage shop and art gallery called Pelicans & Parrots alongside Juliet Da Silva in London.
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Discussing his business success in 2019, he said: "We've been trading since 2010, and have been integral to the regeneration of the area.
"We're very proud of what we've achieved in those nine years. We've taken risks and we're proudly part of the community."
However, despite this, the shop was forced to close in October 2021.
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BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Sidhu Moose Wala: Gangster tells BBC why India's biggest hip-hop star was murdered
It was a killing that shocked India: Punjabi hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala shot dead through the windscreen of his car by hired hours, a Punjabi gangster named Goldy Brar had used Facebook to claim responsibility for ordering the three years after the murder, no-one has faced trial - and Goldy Brar is still on the run, his whereabouts BBC Eye has managed to make contact with Brar and challenged him about how and why Sidhu Moose Wala became a response was coldly articulate."In his arrogance, he [Moose Wala] made some mistakes that could not be forgiven," Brar told the BBC World Service."We had no option but to kill him. He had to face the consequences of his actions. It was either him or us. As simple as that." On a warm May evening in 2022, Sidhu Moose Wala was taking his black Mahindra Thar SUV for its usual spin through dusty lanes near his village in the northern Indian state of Punjab when, within minutes, two cars began tailing footage later showed them weaving through narrow turns, sticking close. Then, at a bend in the road, one of the vehicles lurched forward, cornering Moose Wala's SUV against a wall. He was trapped. Moments later, the shooting footage captured the aftermath. His SUV was riddled with bullets, the windscreen shattered, the bonnet trembling voices, bystanders expressed their shock and concern."Someone get him out of the car.""Get some water.""Moose Wala has been shot."But it was too late. He was declared dead on arrival at hospital - hit by 24 bullets, a post-mortem would later reveal. The 28-year-old rapper, one of modern-day Punjab's biggest cultural icons, had been gunned down in broad daylight.A cousin and a friend who had been in the car with Moose Wala at the time of the ambush were injured, but gunmen were eventually identified. They carried AK-47s and pistols. In the weeks that followed the murder, about 30 people were arrested and two of the suspected armed men were killed in what the Indian police described as "encounters".Yet even with arrests piling up, the motive remained Brar, who claims to have ordered the hit, wasn't in India at the time of the killing. He is believed to have been in conversation with him unfolded over six hours, pieced together through an exchange of voice notes. It gave us a chance to find out why Moose Wala had been killed and to interrogate the motives of the man who claimed responsibility. Sidhu Moose Wala was born Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu in a Jat-Sikh family in rural Punjab, before moving in 2016 to Canada to study engineering - a journey familiar to hundreds of thousands in the Punjabi it was there, far from his village of Moosa - the inspiration for his rap name - that he reinvented himself as one of Punjabi music's most influential artists. In just five years, Moose Wala became the unmistakable voice of Punjabi his signature swagger, flashy style, and lyrical grit, Moose Wala sang openly about identity and politics, guns and revenge, pushing the boundaries of what Punjabi music had been willing to was fascinated by rapper Tupac Shakur, who had been murdered, aged 25, in 1996. "In terms of personality, I want to be like him," Moose Wala once told an interviewer. "The day he died, people cried for him. I want the same. When I die, people should remember that I was someone."Over a brief but explosive career, the singer spotlighted the darker undercurrents of India's Punjab region - gangster culture, unemployment, and political decay - while evoking a deep nostalgia for village Wala was also a global force. With more than five billion views of his music videos on YouTube, a Top 5 spot in the UK charts, and collaborations with international hip-hop artists including Burna Boy, Moose Wala swiftly built a fan base stretching across India, Canada, the UK and beyond, powered by a diaspora that saw him as both icon and fame came at a cost. Despite his rising star and socially conscious lyrics, Moose Wala was drifting into dangerous territory. His defiant attitude, visibility, and growing influence had drawn the attention of Punjab's most feared gangsters. These included Goldy Brar, and Brar's friend Lawrence Bishnoi, who even then was in high-security jail in much is known about Brar, apart from the fact he is on the Interpol Red Notice list, and is a key operative in a network of gangsters operated by Bishnoi – orchestrating hits, issuing threats and amplifying the gang's reach. It is thought he emigrated to Canada in 2017, just a year after Moose Wala himself, and initially worked as a truck once a student leader steeped in Punjab's violent campus politics, has grown into one of India's most feared criminal masterminds. "The first [police] cases filed against Lawrence Bishnoi were all related to student politics and student elections… beating a rival student leader, kidnapping him, harming him," according to Jupinderjit Singh, deputy editor of Indian newspaper the led to a spell in jail which hardened him further, says Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Assistant Inspector General of the Anti-Gangster Task Force of Punjab Police."Once he was in jail, he started to get deeper into crime. Then he formed a group of his own. When it became an inter-gang thing, he needed money for survival. They need more manpower, they need more weapons. They need money for all that. So, for money, you have to get into extortion or crime."Now 31, Bishnoi runs his syndicate from behind bars - with dedicated Instagram pages and a cult-like following."So while Bishnoi sits in jail, Brar handles the gangs," says Assistant Inspector General BBC Eye's exchange with Brar took a year of chasing - cultivating sources, waiting for replies, gradually getting closer to the kingpin himself. But when we got through to Brar, the conversation cast new light on the question of how and why he and Bishnoi came to see Moose Wala as an enemy. One of the first revelations was that Bishnoi's relationship with Moose Wala went back several years, long before the singer's killing."Lawrence [Bishnoi] was in touch with Sidhu [Moose Wala]. I don't know who introduced them, and I never asked. But they did speak," said Brar."Sidhu used to send 'good morning' and 'good night' messages in an effort to flatter Lawrence."A friend of Moose Wala's, who spoke anonymously, also told us that Bishnoi had been in touch with Moose Wala as early as 2018, calling him from jail and telling him he liked his told us that the "first dispute" between them came after Moose Wala had moved back to India. It began with a seemingly innocuous match of kabbadi - a traditional South Asian contact team sport - in a Punjabi village. Moose Wala had promoted the tournament which was organised by Bishnoi's rivals - the Bambiha gang - Brar told us, in a sport where match-fixing and gangster influence are rampant."That's a village our rivals come from. He was promoting our rivals. That's when Lawrence and others were upset with him. They threatened Sidhu and said they wouldn't spare him," Brar told BBC the dispute between Moose Wala and Bishnoi was eventually resolved by an associate of Bishnoi's called Vicky Middhukhera. But when Middukhera himself was gunned down by gangsters in a parking lot in Mohali in August 2021, Brar told us Bishnoi's hostility towards Sidhu Moose Wala reached the point of no Bambiha gang claimed responsibility for killing Middukhera. The police named Moose Wala's friend and sometime manager Shaganpreet Singh on the charge sheet, citing evidence that Singh had provided information and logistical support to the gunmen. Singh later fled India and is believed to be in Australia. Moose Wala denied any Punjab police told the BBC there was no evidence linking Moose Wala to the killing or to any gang-related crime. But Moose Wala was friends with Shaganpreet Singh, and he was never able to shake off the perception that he was aligned with the Bambiha gang - a perception that may have cost him his he can cite no proof of Moose Wala's involvement, Brar remains convinced that the singer was somehow complicit in the killing of Middukhera. Brar repeatedly told us that Shaganpreet Singh had assisted the gunmen in the days before Middukhera's shooting - and inferred that Moose Wala himself must have been involved."Everyone knew Sidhu's role, the police investigating knew, even the journalists who were investigating knew. Sidhu mixed with politicians and people in power. He was using political power, money, his resources to help our rivals," Brar told BBC Eye."We wanted him to face punishment for what he'd done. He should have been booked. He should have been jailed. But nobody listened to our plea."So we took it upon ourselves. When decency falls on deaf ears, it's the gunshot that gets heard."We put it to Brar that India has a judicial system and the rule of law - how could he justify taking the law into his own hands?"Law. Justice. There's no such thing," he says. "Only the powerful can... [obtain] justice, not ordinary people like us."He went on to say that even Vicky Middukhera's brother, despite being in politics, has struggled to get justice through India's judicial system."He's a clean guy. He tried hard to get justice for his brother lawfully. Please call him and ask how that's going."He appeared unrepentant."I did what I had to do for my brother. I have no remorse whatsoever." Outside the UK, watch on YouTube, or listen on The killing of Moose Wala has not just resulted in the loss of a major musical talent, it has also emboldened Punjab's the singer's murder, few outside Punjab had heard of Bishnoi or the killing, their names were everywhere. They hijacked Moose Wala's fame and converted it into their own brand of notoriety - a notoriety that became a powerful tool for extortion."This is the biggest killing that has happened in the last few decades in Punjab," says Ritesh Lakhi, a Punjab-based journalist. "The capacity of gangsters to extort money has gone up. [Goldy Brar]'s getting huge sums of money after killing Moose Wala."Journalist Jupinderjit Singh agrees: "The fear factor around gangsters has risen amongst the public." Extortion has long been a problem in the Punjabi music industry, but now after Sidhu's murder, Singh says: "It's not just people in the music and film industry who are being extorted - even local businessmen are receiving calls."When BBC Eye quizzed Brar on this, he denied this was the motive, but died admit - in stark terms - that extortion was central to the gang's working."To feed a family of four a man has to struggle all his life. We have to look after hundreds or even thousands of people who are like family to us. We have to extort people."To get money," he says, "we have to be feared."
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Seaside towns in chaos as new 'Airbnb tax' proposed as 22k people wait for homes
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BBC News
8 hours ago
- BBC News
World of Secrets The Killing Call: 3. The gangsters
Thousands from across India crowd the streets for Sidhu Moose Wala's funeral, to grieve one of Punjab's famous sons. Millions more watch. Flowers are thrown at the coffin, pulled by his favourite tractor. Amongst the grief are anger and unanswered questions– why was he not better protected? And we find out more about the world he was caught up in. Presented by broadcaster and DJ Bobby Friction and investigative journalist Ishleen Kaur. Season 8 of World of Secrets, The Killing Call, is a BBC Eye investigation for the BBC World Service. Archive audio credits: NDTV, India Today, Pun Yaab, Lovepreet Waraich, BritAsiaTV, CBC, CTV, WION
