logo
Map reveals last-known sightings of missing woman, 22, feared to be in the water after belongings found on iconic bridge

Map reveals last-known sightings of missing woman, 22, feared to be in the water after belongings found on iconic bridge

The Sun15 hours ago
A MAP has revealed the last-known sightings of a missing woman who is feared to be in the water.
Police launched a frantic search after discovering Gwenno Ephraim's belongings on the Menai Bridge in north Wales earlier this week.
4
4
The 22-year-old was last seen in the upper Bangor area on Monday night wearing grey joggers, a grey hoodie and black trainers.
North Wales Police believe that she was making her way towards the Menai Suspension Bridge.
CCTV footage shows Gwenno walking alone between 10.20pm and 11.10pm the same evening.
On Tuesday morning, her personal belongings were discovered on the bridge.
Cops launched a major search operation amid fears that Gwenno may have entered the Menai Straight.
Rescue teams, including cops, HM Coastguard helicopter, and RNLI crews have been working around the clock since Tuesday.
North Wales Police confirmed that searches remain ongoing in the area.
In a statement on its website yesterday, the force said: "Searches remain ongoing for a 22-year-old woman, who is currently missing.
"Gwenno Ephraim was last seen in the upper Bangor area on Monday night (28 July) and is believed to have walked towards Menai Bridge.
"CCTV footage reviewed by officers appears to show Gwenno walking alone between the hours of 10.20pm and 11.10pm on Monday night.
"Personal items, believed to belong to Gwenno, were subsequently found on the Menai Suspension Bridge on Tuesday morning.
"Search efforts in and around the waters of the Menai Strait have continued today (Thursday, 31 July), following several days of activity."
Body found in search for missing mum-of-3 Rachel Booth who disappeared after early morning jog
Officers are in contact and supporting Gwenno's family, but attempts to locate Gwenno have so far been unsuccessful.
Chief Inspector Stephen Pawson added: 'Officers investigating Gwenno's disappearance continue to follow many lines of enquiry in their efforts to trace her movements.
'Gwenno's family has been informed of the circumstances that led up to her disappearance and we will continue to provide support and timely updates as this investigation progresses.
'Our thoughts are with all family members at what must be an extremely difficult time.
"We recognise the distress and emotional impact this investigation will have, and we are committed to supporting the family with the deployment of specially trained officers.
'We would like to hear from anyone who may have seen Gwenno on the night of 28 July, or who may have dashcam footage of her walking from the Bangor area."
The Menai Suspension Bridge connects the island of Anglesey and mainland Wales.
Opened almost 200 years ago, the Grade I listed structure was the world's first iron suspension bridge.
4
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

How drivers were sold a car finance compensation fantasy
How drivers were sold a car finance compensation fantasy

Times

time2 hours ago

  • Times

How drivers were sold a car finance compensation fantasy

Britain has narrowly avoided a costly car finance compensation free-for-all after a landmark court ruling derailed chances of a payout for millions of drivers. Claims lawyers had been bombarding consumers with adverts suggesting they may have been entitled to thousands of pounds in a scandal over hidden commission on car finance deals. The scandal had been expected to rival the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, which cost banks more than £38 billion. It was thought that nearly 15 million drivers could be entitled to payouts worth as much as £44 billion in total — although Friday's Supreme Court ruling means the numbers are set to be far smaller. Questions have now been raised over whether those using car finance really lost out and how many of them deserve compensation at all. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had tried to intervene ahead of the ruling — arguing that a colossal compensation bill for the industry would damage the economy and consumers. The Supreme Court ruled on three cases where consumers bought cars on finance and argued that they had been treated unfairly because they had not been told about commission involved in their deals — which ranged from £183 to £1,651. The court rejected two of the three cases, but upheld a complaint by Marcus Johnson, a factory worker from south Wales — because in his case the £1,651 commission in his loan was 55 per cent of the fee (including interest) on his loan over five years. 'The fact that the undisclosed commission was so high is a powerful indication that the relationship between Mr Johnson and the lender was unfair,' the court's judgment said. It leaves the door open to claims for compensation on deals that contained large amounts of commission, or where the commission model influenced what they paid. How much would be needed for a deal to be unfair is something that is likely to be decided by the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which said it would confirm if it would introduce a redress scheme before stock markets open on Monday morning. The FCA had been investigating finance deals that had used a model called discretionary commission, which incentivised dealers to give customers a worse interest rate on their loan. However, a judgment by the Court of Appeal last October opened the door to compensation claims by millions of motorists who had bought cars on finance, regardless of the commission model. Lenders appealed to the Supreme Court over the ruling. About nine in ten cars are bought on finance and £39.7 billion was borrowed on more than two million cars in the year to May, according to the Finance and Leasing Association, a trade body. The Court of Appeal had ruled in October that car dealers had a duty to make clear the nature and value of any commission paid to them to ensure that borrowers could give 'informed consent' before agreeing to a deal. Reeves was among those concerned about a claims free-for-all, with the Treasury reportedly drawing up contingency plans to shield lenders from having to pay out billions of pounds in compensation. The Treasury attempted to intervene in the Supreme Court case, arguing that a ruling had 'the potential to adversely affect the United Kingdom's reputation as a place to do business, with a consequent impact on economic growth'. In the meantime complaints about car loans to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), a body that solves disputes, have risen from 4,130 in the first three months of 2023-24 to 37,230 in the last three months of 2024-25. Most of these have been brought by claims companies and no-win, no-fee law firms that file complaints on behalf of consumers in return for up to 30 per cent of any compensation. These companies have swamped radio, social media and television with adverts that tell consumers they could be owed thousands of pounds. On Thursday the FCA said it had required 224 adverts from claims firms about car finance to either be taken down or changed. There had been highly speculative figures advertised for how much consumers could get back, it said, including compensation figures that did not make clear they covered multiple car loans and misleading claims that refunds were guaranteed. It said companies had been signing up consumers without their consent after they clicked on adverts. Philip Salter, a former FCA regulator now at the consultancy Sicsic Advisory, said: 'I haven't liked a lot of the claims company advertising. You've had a lot of companies arguing that time is running out, but the clock hasn't even started. It's been a bit of an unseemly scramble.' • Common sense has triumphed over compensation culture If there is to be compensation for consumers, it is expected that the FCA will announce a free redress scheme where lenders will contact those eligible, meaning consumers should not need to use a claims company. Gary Greenwood from the investment bank Shore Capital said: 'It's one of those things where if you go by the letter of the law of the previous Court of Appeal judgment, you're almost coming to the conclusion that commission is bad. But the problem is that if you look at the reality of what had happened, there doesn't seem to have been a lot of consumer harm that's gone on. 'So any sort of redress has got to come down to: has there been any consumer harm here, or are people just trying to claim money back on a technicality?' Greenwood said. Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, which runs Britain's biggest car finance lender, Black Horse, has denied the scandal was on the same level as PPI. 'Some 80 per cent of people need finance to buy a new car, and a large number of second-hand car buyers do as well,' he told The Times in January. 'We need a well-functioning motor finance industry that supports consumers.' The National Franchised Dealers Association, a trade body, told the Supreme Court that 'nobody goes to a car dealer with a reasonable expectation that it is acting without self-interest in relation to any of the products it sells'. The Supreme Court's judgment could have been the difference between lenders facing a compensation bill of £11 billion — for complaints about a specific form of commission — and £29 billion, according to Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets, an investment bank. It could also have led to compensation claims about the sale of other financial products such as insurance where commission was involved but not properly disclosed. Consumers in turn could have had to foot the bill. Stuart Masson, the editor of the advice website The Car Expert UK, said that if lenders have to pay compensation to millions of people, car finance could get more expensive in the future as the industry tries to 'claw back' that money. 'That's not money they're going to find down the back of the sofa,' he told the BBC. 'They're going to have to get that back from increasing the costs of future lending, which won't just be on car finance. It could be on credit cards, it could be on personal loans, it could be on mortgages.' In January Reeves told bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: 'There is nothing pro-consumer about making it harder for people to buy an affordable car for their family.' Before the courts widened the scope of possible mis-selling, the FCA had been investigating a specific model of commission called discretionary commission. This is where the cut that lenders paid dealers was linked to the interest rate consumers were charged, incentivising dealers to charge borrowers more. This model was used in about 35 per cent of car finance deals, according to the FCA, before it banned the practice in January 2021. The FCA said consumers could have paid about £1,100 more in interest over a four-year £10,000 car finance deal because of this commission model — which is being used as the basis for many of the estimates around possible compensation. Salter, who worked on the ban when he was at the FCA, said: 'That previous Court of Appeal ruling surprised me. I think everyone knows that if they're buying a car the salesman's getting commission, don't they? But discretionary commission never felt right to me.' The FCA began its investigation in January last year on whether consumers had been properly told about the link between their repayments and the commission. The investigation was kicked off by two rulings by the ombudsman against Lloyds and Barclays last year, which ordered the banks to refund two consumers more than £1,000 each. The FCA is expected to set out its next steps, including whether there will be a redress scheme, within six weeks. Any scheme would be free and easy for consumers to use, it said, while the FOS is also free for consumers to appeal to. Rob Lilley-Jones from the consumer group Which? said: 'It's vital that finance firms are held accountable for mis-selling and if a large number of motorists are eligible for compensation consumers are likely to be bombarded with ads from claims firms offering to take on their case. 'Affected customers should be careful when enlisting the services of claims management companies as the wrong choice could lead to their case being poorly handled, losing a significant portion of the compensation in legal fees — or both.' Coby Benson from the law firm Bott & Co, which helped win the ombudsman's case against Lloyds, said the experience from PPI was that consumers could sometimes recover more money by going to court than through a redress scheme. He said: 'We would support a proactive redress scheme if it fairly compensated consumers. But we have doubts over the effective implementation of a scheme, because our data shows that about half of clients have a different address now to that which the lender had from the time of the agreement.'

Police pay rise: Officers' salary to increase 4.2% in England and Wales
Police pay rise: Officers' salary to increase 4.2% in England and Wales

The Independent

time14 hours ago

  • The Independent

Police pay rise: Officers' salary to increase 4.2% in England and Wales

Police officers are set to get a 4.2 per cent pay rise for police officers in England and Wales. The increased salary, which has been approved by the government, will apply to all ranks up to and including chief superintendent. It will also be backed by £120 million of extra funding from the Home Office. The Police Federation said the pay award 'barely treads water' with the current rate of inflation and equates to 'a Big Mac per shift'. The pay rise puts the starting salary for a police constable at £31,163, typically going up to £50,257 after six years, while the average salary for a chief superintendent will be £98,500. Allowances for on-call, away from home and hardship will increase by £10 and London weighting will go up by 4.2 per cent. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Our brave police officers work day and night, often making enormous sacrifices, to keep us safe. 'This government is proud to back them in doing so and today's pay award is a clear signal of our gratitude, and our determination to ensure they are properly rewarded for their service.' Brian Booth, deputy national chairman of the Police Federation, said: 'Today's pay award of 4.2% barely treads water, with inflation currently at 4.1%. 'We note that chief constables argued for a pay rise of just 3.8%. We welcome the government's decision to reject that position and instead listen to the strong case we have been making on behalf of police officers across the country. 'However, after more than a decade of real terms pay cuts, this award does little to reverse the long-term decline in officers' living standards or address the crisis policing faces. 'A pay rise worth the price of a Big Mac per shift won't stop record levels of resignations, record mental health absences, or the record number of assaults on officers.' The federation, which represents more than 145,000 officers, will now ask its members whether they want to accept or reject the award. The National Police Chiefs' Council's lead for pay and conditions, Philip Wells, said: 'We are pleased that the pay review body recognised the evidence that was presented by chief constables and the pay award that has been announced today is what we believe our officers deserve and reflects the nature of the work they are required to undertake to keep our streets safe. 'Today the Home Secretary also announced an extra £120 million towards funding the pay award. 'With more than 85% of police spend being on pay costs, it is vitally important that additional costs for pay are fully funded if we are to maintain services and be able to continue to invest in areas such as neighbourhood policing and technology.'

Miscarriage of justice watchdog investigates cases of 175 people handed abolished indefinite jail terms
Miscarriage of justice watchdog investigates cases of 175 people handed abolished indefinite jail terms

The Independent

time14 hours ago

  • The Independent

Miscarriage of justice watchdog investigates cases of 175 people handed abolished indefinite jail terms

The country's miscarriage of justice watchdog is investigating at least 175 cases which saw offenders, including children and young people, handed abolished indefinite jail terms. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has announced it has launched a major project to review applications from prisoners languishing on Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms. The open-ended sentences, which were scrapped in 2012 and have been described as 'psychological torture' by the UN, have left thousands trapped in jail for up to 22 times longer than their original tariff. This includes many who were children at the time of their offence and handed a type of IPP sentence for under-18s called a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) jail term. Now scores of cases are set to be reviewed by the watchdog after a string of IPP and DPP sentences were overturned by the Court of Appeal. Eight of 12 cases referred to the appeal judges for review have resulted in the sentences being quashed, reduced or substituted. This includes father-of-three Leighton Williams, who was wrongly handed an IPP sentence with a 30-month tariff for a drunken fight aged 19. He served almost 16 years under the sentence – mostly in custody – before it was quashed and replaced with a five-year determinate sentence in the Court of Appeal last year. If he had served half of that time in custody, he would have been out of prison by the time he was 22. Three appeal judges finally set him free on 9 May last year, aged 36, after finding the original sentencing judge had wrongly counted a previous offence, committed when he was 17, against him. After he was released, he told The Independent the jail term had robbed him of 16 years, adding: 'I have missed out on growing up with my friends. Going out. Getting a trade, being able to work. Just living a normal life. 'I deserved to go to jail – I understand that. There is no doubt about that. But for the length of time – I don't think you can justify that.' In a similar ruling in October, Darren Hilling's IPP sentence was quashed and substituted because the sentencing judge had failed to attach the necessary importance to his age and maturity when he committed his crime aged 21. Other victims of the scandal, whose tragic cases have been highlighted by The Independent, include: Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for robbing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery. At total of 2,486 IPP prisoners were still languishing in overcrowded prisons without a release date at end of June. Almost 700 of them have served at least ten years longer than their original tariff. At least 94 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives in prison as they lose hope of getting out, according to campaigners. The CCRC project will see the body – tasked with independently reviewing alleged miscarriages of justice – consider up to eight current applications from people serving IPP and DPP sentences, before systematically re-reviewing a backlog of 175 historic applications to see if they should be referred to the Court of Appeal in light of the recent judgments. 'This starts with young people principally because that's where the chink of light is from the Court of Appeal,' CCRC chair Dame Vera Baird told The Independent. Reviews will start with those who were handed indefinite jail terms as children, before looking at those aged 18 to 25, followed by those over 25. This is because sentencing judges may have considered previous convictions as children when they handed out the jail terms to adults. However there is no timeline for the wide-ranging review and Dame Vera warned the CCRC has been allocated no additional resources for the project. The news has been welcomed by campaigners, including the Howard League for Penal Reform, which this summer called for a special CCRC process for IPP prisoners in a major report on the jail term. Other recommendations put forward in the report, including seeing all remaining prisoners given a release date to work towards at their next Parole Review, are being considered by the government. Their director of campaigns Andrew Neilson said he was thrilled to see the CCRC take this 'hugely positive' step, adding: 'Justice is long overdue to the thousands of people serving IPP sentences in prisons and in the community, and we hope that this will be one of many similar policies that will finally end the suffering of this abolished sentence for good.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store