Fury as ‘out-of-touch' BBC splurge £1k on taxi ride paid for by YOU
Staff also took an £8,514 flight, and ran up thousands in hotel bills.
3
The BBC splurged £484 on one taxi ride
3
The Beeb admitted huge outlays in the past two years — funded by licence fee payers — after a Freedom of Information request.
Its most expensive taxi in 2023 was from its Salford studios to Oxford — with the meter hitting £484.
The employee was then taken back for £3 cheaper.
Last year its priciest cab bill was £342 from Milton Keynes to London.
READ MORE ON BBC
Its most expensive flight was £8,514 for a business-class return between Heathrow and Delhi.
There were also two £6,400 London-New York returns.
Last year it spent nearly £14,000 for four staff to stay a fortnight at the Radisson Blu in Dakar,
It also splashed out £2,712 for seven nights at the swanky Hard Rock Hotel, near London's Marble Arch.
Most read in The Sun
Joanna Marchong of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'Splashing out £8,000 on flights and £480 on cabs shows how out of touch the BBC has become.'
The BBC said: 'We're mindful we're spending public money. We have policies in place to manage this and we always work to keep costs to a minimum.'
3
The BBC's most expensive taxi in 2023 was from its Salford studios to Oxford — with the meter hitting £484
Harassers keep jobs
BBC staff found to have sexually harassed colleagues have kept their jobs.
The Beeb upheld five formal grievances, with another partially upheld, in three years to March 2024. Only one worker was fired.
Some 39 bullying, harassment and sexual harassment claims were proven.
A third found guilty — 13 — faced disciplinary action with one dismissal, a request under Freedom of Information rules found.
The BBC said: 'We take all forms of bullying, harassment and misconduct incredibly seriously.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
5 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
I was a professional scammer – terrifying new £10k tech means you can't even trust calls from your kids
Alex Wood once pretended to be members of the aristocracy to stay at swanky hotels for free, and used an app to dupe members of the public into transfer him money - until an epiphany that changed his life SCAM SECRETS I was a professional scammer – terrifying new £10k tech means you can't even trust calls from your kids IN a criminal career that lasted 20 years, fraudster Alex Wood conned millions of pounds out of innocent people. Now the reformed scammer is on a crusade to protect anyone from falling victim to the type of manipulator he once was. Advertisement 8 Alex Wood now uses his insider knowledge to fight fraud Credit: BBC 8 He was jailed three times for his crimes Credit: Supplied 8 Face swapping technology is used by gangs to fool victims The master conman, 44, embarked on his crime spree with what he calls a crude, unsophisticated fraud, setting up a worthless shell company and selling shares in it to friends of friends. 'When they didn't get their money back, they reported it to the police and that led to the first custodial sentence,' he says. 'I got three years for that in 2008.' Advertisement When he was released, he pretended to be various members of aristocracy, such as the Duke of Marlborough, booking into top London hotels such as The Ritz, The Dorchester and The Savoy, dining lavishly without it costing him a thing. 'I got away with it because the hotel felt privileged to have me there and so I was never asked for a swipe of a credit card because, you know, they mustn't trouble 'His Grace.'' After seven months of the high life, he was caught and given a three and a half year prison sentence. But it was behind bars that he was to learn the most lucrative con by far – internet fraud – that earned him what he describes as 'Eye-watering amounts.' He admits he considered the 'push payment' scams, where he convinced targets he was from the bank and got them to transfer 'massive sums of money', a victimless crime until his final arrest, in 2018, led to an epiphany that changed his life. 'I discovered that the offending had really taken a massive toll on victims in many different ways that I hadn't really contemplated before,' he says. Advertisement 'It was the first time I had fully understood that fraud is not a victimless crime. Fraudsters say, 'Well, I'm not leaving anyone bleeding in the street.' 'And we used to convince ourselves that a bank would just refund the victims and therefore we are hitting the banks and not the actual victims. This, for me, was a turning point when I discovered, 'Well, actually, this has profound consequences' and I decided not to just completely stop fraud but to actually try to protect people from people like I used to be.' Alex, who features in the BBC Radio 4 series, Scam Secrets, now uses his insider knowledge to work with police and banks to prevent fraud. Good Morning Britain host loses 'whole life savings' to phone scam and admits 'the shame is devastating' 'The whole aim of what I do is to disrupt fraudsters and I hope that by listening to what I have to say, the expertise I can share, that people will feel protected by that, to some extent,' he says. Here, Alex reveals the tricks behind the most popular and successful scams and what we can do to protect ourselves from becoming yet another victim. Advertisement The child scam You hear a frightening, panicky message from your child saying they have been kidnapped or your child calls you desperately in need of money. 'Even if you think you know the person on the end of the line, be wary because the advent of AI and deep fake technology has made it very difficult to determine who you know and who you don't. 'There's a deep fake AI model that you can access without even subscribing. With a 30 second sample of anyone's voice it can create a 99 per cent accurate clone. So, it can be used to get a child's voice and once the criminal has your phone number they can ring and say they have kidnapped your child and unless you pay a ransom, you will never see them again. 'They can then play what sounds like your child pleading in the background. There are even cleverer versions of this which are also used in the romance scam.' Red Flags 'It's difficult not to act fast when you believe your child is in danger but you need to do some checks. Advertisement 'One mother in the States recently, had a call from a criminal saying they had kidnapped her daughter and $100,000 needed to be dropped off immediately to an address, or she would never see her daughter again. 'They had cloned the girl's voice and the mother could hear what she thought was her daughter pleading in the background, so she paid the ransom. But it turned out that her daughter was safely at school. The default position has to be to say that you are going to make some further inquiries.' 8 Scammers use social engineering to steal your cash Credit: Getty The romance scam You have met the love of your life but your online lover needs money. While you may even be able to chat to your 'lover' on Facetime or video chats, Alex says gangs are now using sophisticated face swap technology to fool victims. Advertisement 'Romance frauds use AI deep fake and there are some very clever things that can be done these days. One criminal gang put a video on the dark web, advertising that if you pay a subscription, around £10,000 a month, you can access this technology which will help you defraud your victims. 'It creates a live map of your face and then casts that face onto somebody else. The video shows an image of a Nigerian man, part of a criminal gang, and his face has been cast on to that of an elderly Asian man. And as the Nigerian guy is talking, you can see, in real time, that it looks like the Asian guy is saying his words. 'The victim was a woman who was convinced she was in a relationship with a retired Asian dentist who'd recently lost his wife, and had suddenly ran into financial difficulty because his cards were frozen. She thought she was in love with this guy and sent him 100 grand.' Red Flags 'So much romance fraud is never reported because it's embarrassing for the victim. And if they are lucky and their bank has refunded them what they paid out, they think, 'Well, okay, I've dodged a bullet. I've got my money back. There's no point going to the police. This guy's in Africa. They're not going to get him, so what's the point?' 'There's a huge level of under-reporting but it's immensely harmful. Advertisement 'Don't be swept up in the moment and take time to think things over. People need to be aware of how convincing deep fake is these days.' 8 A deep fake image of Jennifer Aniston was used in a recent romance scam Credit: Solent 8 Videos and messages were sent through Facebook by scammers Credit: Solent Bank scam Your bank calls or emails saying your account is at risk and you need to safeguard your money. 'This is the authorised push payment scam that I used to defraud companies. I had an app that you can get on an iPhone that made it look as though I was calling from the bank.' Advertisement Like many scammers, Alex would pose as a member of the bank's fraud team and say they had unusual transactions on their account. 'One way of conning them is by saying the account is under attack and we need to work fast to make sure your money is secure by transferring it into another account, then the fraudster syphons off money in the process. 'But I used to say that we were going to put their account on an 'offline session' to make some dummy payments, to find out how these odd transactions were taking place. 'I would then get them to make a 'dummy' payment and I'd give them what they thought was a randomly generated sort code and account number but it would actually belong to the mule account that I was controlling. 'For the payment value, I would casually say, 'Let's just enter 12345678, so it looks like a payment and just put a dot before the seven.' And that, of course, was £123,456.78 that went into my account. Advertisement 8 Alex used the sounds of a call centre to make his fraud Credit: Getty 8 Fraud expert Dr Elisabeth Carter also appears on the programme Credit: Linkedin 'The patter was very well thought out. It used manipulation that is known as social engineering. If anyone was ever worried and needed reassurance, I'd pass the phone over to the 'manager'. That would also be me. I even pretended to be a woman on the phone sometimes. 'I often played a track down the line I got on YouTube called Call Centre Noise, which sounded, in the background, like a busy bank call centre. 'One of the most powerful things I used to do was to make the victim feel like he or she was in control of the call by giving them the opportunity to end it. Advertisement "I would say, 'I need you to trust me fully and if you don't then I can arrange an appointment for you to come into the branch and do it.' So then the victim is thinking, 'Well, he can't possibly be a fraudster because he's giving me an opportunity to opt out.' Red Flags 'No one is ever going to contact you out of the blue and ask you to make a payment or to move your money to a safe account. Don't make payments on the basis of that first call or first email. Do some digging. 'If you are called via WhatsApp then hang up because it has a screen sharing ability with which they can see exactly what you are doing. The bank, police and HMRC are NEVER going to contact you on WhatsApp. 'If you think you have been a victim you can ring 159 to be put through to the fraud department of your bank very quickly. Twenty seven banks in the UK have signed up to this system.' The knitted cardigan fraud The item you bought on the internet is nothing like what you expected. Advertisement 'On Scam Secrets we call this the knitted cardigan fraud. You go on eBay or some other market place and see an advert for a beautiful cardigan. You order it, and then what turns up is a horrible, scratchy, polyester version. It's false advertising. This, again, can be a bit embarrassing for a victim to report. 'You know, if you buy a cardigan for 50 quid, are you going to be bothered to go to the police? Instead, people usually take steps to ensure the seller remedies the situation. They might then be promised a full refund if the item is sent back. But often it will be somewhere far away, like China, which might cost £45 to post. 'So, you decide it's not worth it and just chuck the item in the bin and vow to be more careful about who you buy from in future. And because it's not reported to the police, criminals get away with this, thousands and thousands of times.' Red Flags 'If you see an advert on a site that says it has a high Trustpilot score of say, 4.9, go to Trustpilot directly to check because a lot of these scores are fake. 'Beware of trusting what you see without doing some research and really digging into what's being offered for sale.' Advertisement The bailiff threat A caller tells you bailiffs are on their way to collect a debt. 'People are made to really panic when they get a call that the bailiffs are on the way to collect a debt. There's no genuine debt there but just by using time driven high pressure, they often pay up. It's just basically criminals extorting money effectively.' Red flags 'If somebody is rushing you – in this case claiming bailiffs are going to be at your home in half an hour to take all your stuff away – and you haven't had any post about it, take a step back. 'Break that contact with the person on the phone. Hang up, take a deep breath, have a cup of tea and think about it. "Call somebody else to get their input – a trusted family member or colleague. If it's legitimate, no genuine bailiff will mind if you want to have half an hour to check it out. Fraudsters rely on you being under their spell, so breaking that initial context is very, very important.' Advertisement Scam Secrets is on BBC Radio 4 weekly on Thursdays at 12noon and available to listen on BBC Sounds
Extra.ie
2 days ago
- Extra.ie
'If State buys Citywest, it'll never come back to the people of the area'
Staff have been threatened with a hammer, spat at, intimidated and assaulted numerous times abt two asylum centres in the capital in the last six months, can reveal. In one case, a resident spat at staff and threatened to kill them before gardaí were called. In another, a resident was arrested after assaulting staff and threatening them with a hammer. Dirty needles, drug use and theft are also recorded among the nearly 200 incidents reported at the Citywest asylum centre in the last six months. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin The centre has been the location for a multitude of violent incidents since January 1 this year. Between Citywest and another centre in Dún Laoghaire, there have been numerous threats and assaults to staff and other asylum seekers. Information released to under Freedom of Information legislation, shows how violence and illegal activity is still plaguing the Citywest campus two years on from a mass brawl which left five people hospitalised. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin In the last six months alone, 20 assaults have been logged by Citywest staff. Some of the reports do not specify whether an incident happened in Citywest or Dún Laoghaire. Just one part of the report, written about incidents that happened in February, March and April includes: 'aggressive threats towards staff; stabbing/self harm; aggressive behaviour towards staff; drinking alcohol/aggressive and abusive behaviour towards staff; physical altercation; physical altercation/aggressive behaviour to staff'; assault/aggressive behaviour/smoking inside/blocking fire exit; altercation between two residents; altercation between two residents; serious altercation between residents; assault/aggressive behaviour, smoking inside; assault of staff members/aggressive behaviour/intimidation/abusive towards residents/hammer/arrested; aggressive behaviour/assault/abusive towards staff.' Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin On February 22, three reports record: 'aggressive and assault towards staff and residents/spitting at staff/threat of life/arrest.' Other worrying reports logged by staff at the Citywest campus include how one resident was discovered with a knife. In total, there have been 193 incidents logged by staff at the Citywest centre between January 1 and June 30 this year. Some of these include petty offences such as the 'theft of €20' and the 'theft of trousers'. Other items stolen at the campus include power banks, prayer mats, shoes and headphones. However, the incidents include evidence of hard drug taking with a used needle discovered in the toilets of the centre on May 1 this year. There are also three different incidents which have been redacted by the Department of Justice included in the total. However, they all mentioned how gardaí were required to investigate. There were also over a dozen incidences of trespass at Citywest. On one occasion, staff reported eggs being thrown at residents by people who had illegally made their way onto the campus near Saggart. The presence of cannabis at the Citywest site was also recorded on several occasions, according to the documents released to us. This resulted in the drugs being confiscated and destroyed, records showed. It emerged in June that the Citywest campus, which was being rented by the Government to house refugees, was being bought by the Government and will remain as an accommodation centre for over 2,300 people seeking asylum while their applications are processed. The Government confirmed it signed off on the €148.2 million deal to acquire the Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre in southwest Dublin. The announcement sparked concern among local residents. Protesters from Saggart gathered outside Leinster House to oppose the purchase, citing fears over the loss of public access to the hotel complex and increased strain on local services. Junior Minister Colm Brophy addressed the concerns, saying engagement with local representatives would be prioritised to ensure transparency and communication with the community. 'Very importantly, the purchase of Citywest will not result in any immediate increase in numbers,' he said. At the protest following news of the Government's purchase of the site, protesters repeatedly said the area can not support so many people for a long period. Bernie Cronin, from Clondalkin, said 200 people met two weeks ago where concerns were raised about the Government plan to buy Citywest Hotel. Mr Cronin, who is a former member of Fine Gael and a current member of Independent Ireland, said it has been the area's 'greatest amenity' for 40 years. 'If the Government buys it, it will never come back to the people of Saggart and the surrounding districts as the superb and magnificent luxury hotel it has been for 40 years,' he said. He said locals have 'no concern' about its current use as an IPAS centre for housing asylum seekers. Mr Cronin said there have been concerns by the group others could 'hijack what we are trying to do'. Asked about 'outside elements' at the protest, Mr Cronin said: 'They don't help us and I know that's a concern.' 'It's not a question about race, it's about space,' Saggart resident Susan Murphy said. The Justice Minister said there are no immediate plans to increase capacity at the site. The Department of Justice, in a statement said it is also in ongoing discussions to ensure the leisure centre on the site remains open to the public following the purchase. The leisure centre has approximately 3,000 members and is a valuable amenity for the local community.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
'We meant nothing to the State. My mother was given the name Dolly, and her number was 2274'
John Duncan Morris knew who his birth mother was for many years, and that he had two sisters, but he waited until he was 54 years old before he made any approach 'for fear of causing upset'. 'I didn't want to hurt anyone and so I always held off, and I think that was the right thing" he explained. 'They were living their lives, and I didn't know if my sisters knew about me. It wasn't until my wife encouraged me to try and connect, that I started making those steps'. The father of two, who lives in Scotland with his family, began gathering his paperwork under Freedom of Information more than a decade ago. He learned he was born in Cork's Bessborough mother and baby home in 1967, before he was moved to St Joseph's home in Stamullen in Co Meath 90 days later. John's mother, Kathleen Morris, who was from Cavan, did not marry his father and remained working for the nuns as a domestic in Cork for the next year before she moved back home. There, she kept her secret until she was 89 years old. 'On April 13, 1967, I was taken by a nun from Cork to Heuston station in Dublin, where a social worker took me to Stamullen in Meath,' John told the Irish Examiner. John Duncan Morris as a child. 'After five years in Stamullen I was transferred to St Mary's in north Dublin, where I was described as mildly handicapped. I was there for two and a half years, and then I was boarded out to a family for nine years. 'I never called them mum and dad; I called them by their first names. I was never adopted. When I was 16 years old, I went to the Los Angeles boys' home in Blackrock, in South Dublin and I do have fond memories of that time," he said. Despite being taken from his mother as an infant and moved around several care homes until he was in his late teens, John is not entitled to any redress under the mother and baby institution redress scheme. The scheme, which opened to survivors of mother and baby homes in March of last year, is meant to offered redress for the time men and women spent in such institutions, and for the mental trauma so many of them experienced. The act stipulates that anyone who was in a home for less than six months is not entitled to a payment, while children who were boarded or fostered out, are also excluded. The Bessborough home in Cork is recognised under the scheme, however, John was only there for 90 days, and therefore does not meet the criteria for payment. And even though he spent five years in St Joseph's home in Stamullen in Co Meath, it is not on the list of eligible homes — so John is not entitled to any redress for his time spent there either. The €800m redress scheme — the largest of its kind — has been criticised for the fact it excludes people like John Duncan Morris and up to 34,000 other mother and baby home survivors — and campaigners say has only added to the trauma suffered by these people. Last month, John and fellow survivor Maire Thornton — who are not known to each other — took the first High Court case against the State over these exclusions. Last month, John, and fellow survivor Maire Thornton took the first High Court case against the State over exclusions from the mother and baby home redress scheme. In a sitting in Dundalk Co Louth, counsel for Coleman Legal, which has 1,400 clients in similar circumstances, argued they should be included in the scheme and that children's minister Norma Foley — who is defending the action — has the discretion to add other homes to the eligible list. Presiding judge Alexander Owens was told to exclude survivors from the scheme under these rules was 'in breach of the doctrine of reasonableness and is unfair and arbitrary'. The plaintiffs want a review of the exercise of discretionary power according to 'settled principles of reasonableness'. Mark Harty SC and John Gordon SC for the plaintiffs, claimed the Government had acted unreliably in its establishment of a policy of refusing to provide redress to individuals from certain mother and baby institutions. The hearing was centred on the wording of section 49 of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Act 2022. It states: 'The minister, with the consent of the minister for public expenditure, may by regulation provide for the insertion in column two of part one, or column two of part two, of schedule of any institutions which was established for the purpose of providing pregnant-related and infant care services and the placement of children for the purposes of adoption or care arrangements, and in respect of which a public body had a regulatory or inspection function'. Senior counsel for the minister, Eileen Barrington SC, told the High Court the act states the homes that are eligible for the scheme were ones that provided pregnant-related and infant care — and that St Josephs and Temple Hill — where the second plaintiff Marie Thornton was placed, were for infant care only. Justice Alexander Grant has reserved his judgement for a later date. Speaking outside the court John said: 'We shouldn't be here fighting this, it's not about money, it is about the State recognising you.' His sister, Sarah McCloskey, who met John for the first time four years ago, said: 'It is disgraceful it had to come to this. They are still forcing John into the courts, it is crazy, I can't believe they are doing that, and it's all based on what institution qualifies when it was a person who was affected.' Ms McCloskey said she was 'delighted' when she learned she had an older brother in 2021. She had sat with her mother through films such as Philomena, based on Philomena Lee's search for her son, who was given up for adoption without her consent, and stories similar to her mother's own. 'But she never let on,' Ms McCloskey told the Irish Examiner. 'There was no indication whatsoever, except that she was very critical of the nuns and the church, she stopped going to mass and she didn't send us to religious schools. 'When we learned about John through a letter from Tusla, when he decided to reach out, we were absolutely delighted. When I think of how lucky I was, I went to college in Dublin in 1989 and did my degree, and my sister went to Trinity — we were so privileged, and John was going through all this just because of the stigma of a baby out of wedlock. It was disgraceful. Sarah said when her mother met John it was like 'a massive burden off her shoulders'. 'John doesn't share the same father as me and my sister, dad died when I was 17, so mam raised us on her own and did everything for us' she said. John Duncan Morris with his mother Kathleen, who he met for the first time in October 2021 when she was 89 years old. Sadly, that first meeting between John and his mother on October 14, 2021, was to be John's last — because Kathleen died in February 2022. 'I would have liked to get to know her more,' said John. 'But that meeting went really well, she could see a resemblance between me and her father'. While Sarah said: 'It was 50 something years of holding this in, and then it all came out it was a great release for her. 'My mother thought he was adopted, but he never was, and she immediately went into mothering mode with him." Sarah and John both admit they were nervous before the meeting at her home in Cavan. 'We sat and had tea and cakes, and we talked. 'But mam was absolutely delighted to meet you John, she put her arms around you.' The plan was to meet again for their mother's 90th birthday the following April, but Kathleen's health declined, and she died, and John was 'honoured' to help carry her coffin at her funeral mass. 'Mum said she planned to leave a letter' said Sarah, 'But she hadn't the opportunity to tell us about that part of her life. 'The whole redress and what is happening in the court room, it's about the legality of things. And it's not just about the nuns, the Cavan social workers were involved too", she said. While John added 'We meant nothing to the State. My mother was sent out to work for a year after I was born, she was given the name Dolly, and her number was 2274'. 'She was like a prisoner,' said Sarah. 'None of it is right and no survivor should be here fighting this.' John's case was heard alongside Marie Thornton, who is now 71 years old, and is now a married mother of grown-up children. She said she knows who her parents are, but that they 'were not allowed to get married'. 'And so, I ended up in Temple Hill,' she said. Pointing to her left leg with her cane, she described how her two legs are different, 'this one [on the left] is very damaged because of three degree burns and I live in constant pain.' This lifelong injury she has had to learn to live with, was referenced in her High Court action in Dundalk and Justice Owens was told the injuries were sustained while in the care home in Temple Hill. 'I was born in a private maternity hospital in 1954 and then one week later I was put into Temple Hill in Blackrock" said Marie. 'I was adopted, and the order shows I was adopted in 1958, four years later. I have records from my adoptive parents asking the nuns about my leg and how they were never given much information on how to deal with it.' Ms Thornton is also excluded from the redress scheme because Temple Hill is not recognised in the list of eligible institutions under the scheme. 'It is totally unfair' she said. 'I am not here for money; I am here to stand up for myself and others". Ms Thornton said her adoption was 'not a good one' and she spent decades trying to piece her life together. "I was born in June, and in August the burns occurred and I ended up in Temple Street hospital. 'Obviously, a serious accident must have occurred but to this day I have no answers, I was never told, even though they have very limited information from the medical records from Temple Street, they do refer to the burns in my records'. She said she tried since she was 18 years old to get her information but was told by the nuns she had 'no right' to it. One nun was sitting with my very large file beside her and all she could say was, 'what do you want that for'. 'They did as they pleased and now the minister is refusing to take us on board. It's been a lifetime of fighting". The latest figures from the Department of Children show: 6,641 applications have been made to date 58% via online portal, 42% via post; 4,523 general and work-related payments have been processed; There have been applications from 25 countries. 83% from Ireland, 11% UK, 4% USA and 2% rest of world. Norman Spicer with Coleman Legal told the Irish Examiner he was working with 1,400 survivors and "It was appalling that the State had fought the survivors of these institutions who suffered at the hands of the religious orders and the State, in institutions which mirrored in every way, the circumstances that existed in institutions already qualifying for redress under the scheme". Mr Spicer went on to say the State had an obligation to match action with words when it came to the apology given to survivors of the institutions in January 2021. Commenting on a recent report compiled by the minister on the redress scheme, Mr Spicer said it was clear the numbers currently eligible to apply to the scheme fell well short of the expected 34,000 applicants envisaged when it was established. Almost 18 months into the scheme's operation, only about 8% of the €800m budget had been spent on redress for survivors with about 6,600 applications made. Mr Spicer argues to extend redress to these two institutions was not only the right thing to do but would clearly still keep the costs confined to the budget set previously by government. A statement from Ms Foley's office said: 'As this case is still before the courts, we cannot provide a response at this time.'
