
Tourist, 27, jailed after killing Brit dad, 31, with vodka bottle on Prague stag do in horror ‘blind attack'
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A GERMAN man has been jailed for seven years after killing a Welsh dad on a stag do in the Czech Republic.
Joel Hoppe, 27, was sentenced this week at a Prague court for the murder of David 'Dai' Richards in September last year.
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David, a father of three, tragically died in September 2024
Credit: WALES NEWS SERVICE
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David 'Dai' Richards with his partner Jola Simms
Credit: WALES NEWS SERVICE
David was a 31-year-old father-of-three from Mountain Ash in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Czech Police spokesman Jan Daněk said: "At first, everything was calm and the tourists were chatting normally.
"Then there was a rift between them and one of them hit the other in the head with a vodka bottle.
"The blow was so strong that the injured person immediately fell to the ground and unfortunately died in hospital."

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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The barbers, car washes and salons employing illegal workers across Britain as they are slapped with fines of up to £225K
Two barbers on the same road are among scores of High Street businesses fined for employing illegal workers. Fade Zone Barber and New Style Barber in Bodmin received penalties totalling £90,000, according to the latest Home Office figures. Officials regularly 'name and shame' companies who have been employing staff with no right to work in the UK, revealing the wide extent of the country's 'dark economy'. The ability to work without papers has been cited as a major pull factor in drawing illegal migrants to Britain - prompting officials to hike fines to £45,000 per worker and carry out more raids on firms suspected of breaking the rules. New figures show 12 barbers across the UK were fined between October and December 2024, making the sector one of the most common employers of illegal migrants. But car washes featured even more prominently, with 38 receiving fines and two - Clean Car Centre Hand Car Wash in Coventry and Bubbles Hand Car Wash in Edinburgh - hit with huge fines totalling £180,000 each. Three beauty salons received fines totalling £125,000, with convenience stores, restaurants and vape stores also among the worst offenders. But the business that received the highest fine of £225,000 was Kukki Glazing Ltd, a home renovation service based in Smethwick, West Midlands. Fines who hire an illegal migrant can be given a civil penalty of £45,000 per worker for a first breach, up from £15,000. Repeat breaches can incur a £60,000 fine, up from £20,000. Last year, police busted an Eastern European crime syndicate who smuggled 12 migrants into the UK before making them work illegally at car washes. One migrant was forced to live in an unheated garage without a roof before being put to work cleaning vehicles for no money, with his captors - who included 47-year-old Czech man Zdenek Drevenak - exploiting his 'desperation' not to be deported. Another case saw a couple force more than 40 Slovakian 'slaves' to carry out nearly £1million worth of work for free at their car wash in Southmead, Bristol. Maros Tancos and Joanna Gomulska, both 46, were jailed for a total of 25 years. Employers have been required since 2008 to carry out 'right to work' checks on their staff, and risk a £60,000 for every person found working illegally. But these checks only apply to people who are classified as employees, with companies who used self-employed workers exempted. This means that anyone in the 'gig economy', which now covers about 1.6million people, can work with far less scrutiny. It previously emerged that migrants living in taxpayer-funded asylum hotels – including those who arrived by small boat – are securing work as fast food delivery riders within hours of entering Britain. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said he had found evidence of asylum seekers breaking rules which bar them from working while their claim is processed by the Home Office. Emma Brooksbank, an immigration partner at Freeths, recently claimed that gig economy companies like delivery apps were 'largely unregulated' and had 'no real incentive to clean up their act'. 'The simple fact is that gig economy companies do not know who is using their app, and who is engaging with their customers under their brand name, making illegal work easy, effortless, and undetectable, which acts as a draw for illegal migrants to continue to arrive in small boats from France,' she said. Ms Brooksbank called for the Government to start holding delivery companies responsible and heavily fining them for 'facilitating illegal work'. Zdenek Drevenak, 47, was part of an Eastern European gang who smuggled 12 migrants into the UK with the promise of a better life before stealing wages they earned washing cars The poor conditions in Tancos and Gomulska's flat are likely being replicated in scores of other locations across the UK Concerns have also been raised about criminals using High Street businesses such as barbers, car washes and salons to launder money. More than 750 barbers opened in the UK last year despite a broader retail downturn - raising suspicions that some are being used by gangs. A series of raids were carried out earlier this year as part of Operation Machinize - a crackdown on gangs using barber shops for fraud, money laundering and selling illicit goods. Police seized more than £500,000 in dirty cash and arrested seven people after swooping on 33 premises in May. Detective Sergeant Adrian Bray from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit said: 'Barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses like vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes are often used by criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes. 'Their aim is to mix legitimate funds and criminal profits to hinder investigations into their criminality. We know they are also adept at exploiting vulnerable people to work in their businesses.' The raids were carried out by the regional police forces, alongside Trading Standards, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, HMRC and other partners in the first co-ordinated action of this kind. According to the NCA, £12billion of criminal cash is thought to be generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system through money laundering techniques. Among the raids undertaken in Rochdale, Greater Manchester Police found some of the staff at mini-marts were Kurdish, Iraqi or Iranian asylum seekers, who were working in the UK illegally.


Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
My Notting Hill restaurant has been targeted by brazen thieves 20 times and police do nothing about it... I'm still waiting for them to show up 24 hours after the last break-in!
A top chef has lamented the decline of London policing after thieves stole produce from his restaurant by thieves for what he believes is the 20th time. Richard Wilkins, who runs 104 Restaurant in the capital's plush Notting Hill, says police are yet to visit him more than 24 hours after a pair of brazen thieves stole soft drinks and pantry supplies from a storage area in broad daylight. The Welsh chef reckons his business has been targeted by opportunist and organised thieves 20 times in the last four years. Criminals have made off with all manner of stock - including pricey Scottish langoustines and a mincer he bought for the kitchen. One even used bolt cutters to steal his £2,000 bicycle last month. Mr Wilkins, who has worked at Gordon Ramsay 's Michelin-starred Pétrus and at the three-starred Maison Pic in France, says he has reported every theft to the Metropolitan Police - only for officers to close the case in days with no arrests. And when his bike was stolen, police effectively let the thief get away after scrambling up some scaffolding. Officers decided the criminal would be put at too much risk if they tried to chase him. 'London shouldn't feel lawless but it is lawless when it comes to petty crime like theft,' Mr Wilkins told MailOnline. 'It doesn't even matter the level of the theft - it could be this, it could be a £10,000 watch. People know they can get away with it so they do it. That's why they come along at three o'clock in the afternoon and steal bikes. 'A colleague in Soho came back from a daytime meeting and the lock on her bike had been 75 per cent cut through. 'People are just doing things in broad daylight - and nobody stops them because they're worried about being stabbed. 'London has become a low trust society. You can't leave things outside anymore because someone will steal it. I don't wear anything nice out, my Apple Watch or anything, because it's becoming a matter of life or death. 'The core values of the police have been obliterated. It's a failure of organisation.' He opened the Michelin-recommended establishment, labelled London's smallest fine dining restaurant, in March 2019. Inspired by his time working in top Continental establishments, it serves offerings like Noir de Bigorre pork pâté en croûte, French guinea fowl and Kagoshima wagyu fillet. A three-course dinner runs at £60 per person - with a tasting menu coming in at £120, or £150 with A5 wagyu, the highest standard of Japanese beef available. A sample wine menu suggests bottles of 1992 La Tache Grand Cru can be served with dinner for £4,900. And he hit the headlines not long after opening after engaging in a war of words on social media with Made In Chelsea and Buying London star Rosi Mai Walden, telling her 'I've never even heard of you' after she got in touch trying to blag a free meal. Wednesday's theft saw a crook in a t-shirt, gilet and baseball cap nonchalantly make off with a stack of Coca Cola as well as packets of butter. The stock had been left in a small wicker enclosure off of the main road, around the side of the restaurant. An hour later in the CCTV, the same man returns with a pair of sunglasses on his head, what appears to be a bright yellow carrier bag from Selfridges and an accomplice, who reaches in to grab two cases of bottled water. Thief number one then helps himself to another two cases - and checks a box labelled 'wagyu beef' to see if there were any prime Japanese cuts he could pinch before leaving. The chef glibly captioned the footage: 'Another lovely member of the public stealing our produce an hour ago. Police do nothing. So nice of them to come back and take the rest. Cheers guys.' The wicker fencing had been used to store his bike - until it was stolen. Suppliers keep dropping stock off in the enclosure despite the fact he has padlocked cupboards he asks them to put their deliveries in. Mr Wilkins is often alone as he prepares the restaurant for the day - so can't keep a constant eye out for deliveries. The delivery had been dropped in a wicker enclosure despite Mr Wilkins asking suppliers to use the padlocked cupboards next door Few suppliers do as he asks - not that it would matter. Not long ago, a thief smashed his way into the cupboards looking for stock and left empty-handed. Mr Wilkins is yet to get the door fixed. He almost doesn't see the point, since he expects it to be stoved in again anyway. The chef reported the theft shortly after it happened but is yet to be visited by a police officer more than 24 hours on. 'This happens every few weeks,' he told MailOnline as he prepared for the evening's dinner service on Thursday. 'It seems to be the new normal.' Next to him, a laptop shows a constant feed of the CCTV cameras, something he wishes he didn't have to keep a constant eye on. He continued: 'If it isn't that (someone stealing stock), it's someone ripping the cupboards off their hinges and walking off. 'It's happened 20 times in the last three or four years and no-one has ever been arrested. You report it, you give them the CCTV, and they close the case. 'There was a guy who took 20 minutes to break into the cupboards and just left two cases of water in there - and it costs us so much to get the door redone.' Mr Wilkins does not suffer financially from the thefts so long as he gets a police report to submit to his suppliers - but being deprived of stock in a business that has few tables, and discerning customers, is hardly convenient. The theft of his £2,000 bike on June 11, however, was the incident that took the cake. Mr Wilkins had heard activity outside that day while preparing for service - and it was only an hour or so later that he realised his bike was gone, the lock shorn through with bolt cutters after the thief first tried to wrench a securing bracket from the wall. By chance, he saw the thief outside an hour or so later - with no bike in sight - and confronted him. Fleeing, the crook hopped over a wall towards Ladbroke Grove and vanished. A member of the public then saw him clambering up scaffolding. Emergency services then cordoned off the street and tried to coax the crook down as he threw pieces of scaffold into the street. As the clock hit midnight and the criminal refused to leave, Mr Wilkins went home, sure that he would wake up to good news. Instead, he received an email from a police constable who told him the pursuit had been called off because of the risk that the thief might fall. What are the Peelian principles? The Peelian principles are the widely accepted standards of modern British policing drawn from the General Instructions issued to the very first Metropolitan Police officers. They are named after one-time Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, who founded the Met with an Act of Parliament in 1829, though he is not thought to have written them down in their entirety. In summary, they are: To prevent crime and disorder That policing is done with public approval and respect That the cooperation of the public to follow the law should be secured Recognising that physical force and compulsion reduces public trust Demonstrating 'absolutely impartial' service to the law Using the minimum physical force only when needed to restore order 'The police are the public and the public are the police' Allowing the judiciary to decide who is guilty and their punishment That police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visibility of police dealing with them 'We couldn't catch him,' the officer said. There was no apology. Mr Wilkins says his situation is endemic of the general experience of crime in the capital - where phone-snatching, 'Rolex-ripping' and bike theft is rife. He deliberately uses a £140 Samsung smartphone - because the risk of having an upmarket device stolen is simply too great. 'It's the breakdown of society if it takes a member of the public to try to solve the crime themselves,' he said. 'I don't want the world to be like Mad Max.' He claims the Peelian principles - the ideals of modern British policing developed by Sir Robert Peel when he founded the Met Police - are effectively dead, and that the force is weighed down with bureaucracy. His bike theft was first passed to an officer in Hammersmith who attended - before being sent to a 'local' officer in another area of London. In order to email in, he had to register for a 'community portal' website, and hasn't heard back. Earlier this month, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced a policing blitz in 20 town centres across the capital, with more uniformed officers on the streets. Mr Wilkins, however, says he barely sees an officer at all - save for the occasional community support officer (PCSO), who don't even have the power to arrest a suspected criminal. And despite being stolen from time and again, the chef says he loves London, having aspired to move to the capital since he was a child. He wants to see the city strive for better, rather than give up altogether. 'You've won the lottery being born in the UK but that doesn't mean we shouldn't want to make things better,' he said. 'It's not even about the money or having so many officers. It's the organisation. 'Restaurants can be a money pit - you can buy £10,000 chairs, hire triple the number of staff you actually need, but does that make it better? Not necessarily. 'What makes a business a good business is running it efficiently, and I think it's the same with the police. The whole organisation is discombobulated. 'The idea is that people should be worried about being caught - and they're not. 'It makes criminals think they can do whatever they like. If they aren't scared of getting caught they're just going to be emboldened. There's no detriment.' He adds: 'I love London. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to move here. 'There is stuff here worth saving, worth fighting for.'


Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Shocking moment ex-footballer, 22, ploughs into elderly gran and flees before being hunted down by horrified bystanders
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THIS is the shocking moment an ex-footballer riding an e-bike ploughed into a grandmother crossing the road. Footage shows Margaret Scaldwell, 70, walking across Orell Road, in Wigan, in August 2023. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Margaret Scaldwell, 70, was walking across Orell Road, in Wigan Credit: GMP 7 Kian Monks was speeding at around 40mph in a 30mph zone with Joel Pilling Credit: GMP 7 Monks tried to deny he had been riding the e-bike Credit: GMP Kian Monks, then aged 19, barrels towards her at around 40mph on a Talaria Sting e-bike. The grandmother was thrown several metres through the air and smashed her head on the pavement. A distressed 999 caller could be heard telling a dispatch officer: "She's in the middle of the road, she's just been knocked over. "Her head's open, there's blood everywhere, she is breathing, the lad's trying to run away, the one who knocked her over. It's not good." Cowardly Monks was filmed by members of the public as he fled from the scene down an alleyway. When officers caught up to the thug his face was covered in blood. He tried to plead innocence and told police: "I wasn't driving, it wasn't me. I've hit my head. I've hurt my head and my jaw." The teen had been riding the Talaria Sting, which had its speed limiter disconnected, alongside Joel Pilling, 22. Pilling handed himself in to police later the same day. Margaret was rushed to hospital with a broken spine, pelvis, arms and 19 broken ribs. She was placed in a coma with life-changing injuries. The 70-year-old who was once "independent" and "always had a smile" is now unable to feed herself. Both Monks and Pilling appeared at Bolton Crown Court yesterday. Monks, now 22, was sentenced to 22 months in prison, after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, dangerous driving and driving with no licence or insurance. 7 The cowardly teen tried to flee the scene Credit: GMP 7 He was covered in his victim's blood when officers caught him Credit: GMP 7 Monks was sentenced to 22 months in jail Credit: GMP The £3,795 Talaria Sting e-bike is considered a motor vehicle under the law and requires insurance. He was also found guilty of failing to stop at the scene of a collision, failing to report a collision and failing to provide a specimen for analysis following a serious collision. Pilling, who owned the motorbike but held no licence, was given a 22-month sentence, suspended for two years. He must also carry out 250 hours of unpaid work. In an emotional statement after the sentencing, Margaret said: "These men's selfishness have ruined my life. "Before the collision I was an independent lady and always had a smile on my face. "Now my life is dehumanising, reduced to a long list of hospital appointments with no end in sight and I can no longer walk wash or feed myself. "No sentence will bring back my health. But I will not let them beat me as I am determined to recover the best I can." Det Const Steve Pennington, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "This was a shocking incident where two individuals recklessly rode an e-bike through one of Wigan's busiest areas with complete disregard for public safety. "Their dangerous driving resulted in a horrific collision with a grandmother who was simply crossing the road. "She suffered life-changing injuries and spent weeks in a coma - it's nothing short of miraculous that she survived. "This incident highlights the severe consequences of operating e-bikes illegally on our roads. "These aren't toys - they're powerful vehicles that require proper licensing, safety equipment, and responsible handling. "Riding without these essentials isn't just breaking the law - it's putting lives at risk. "At GMP we're committed to reducing serious and fatal collisions across our region. "We actively support national road safety initiatives like the Fatal 4 campaign, targeting the four main causes of serious road incidents: speeding, using mobile phones, not wearing seatbelts, and driving under the influence. "Road safety is everyone's responsibility, and the consequences of ignoring this can be truly catastrophic." E-bike crack down By Jack Elsom YOBS who terrorise towns with off-road bikes, e-scooters and cars will have them crushed within 48 hours under new police powers. Ministers plan to reduce the time cops can destroy thugs' vehicles from two weeks to two days so they have less chance to retrieve them. Officers have complained that the current 14-day window creates a 'revolving door' where louts have time to reclaim their bikes and cars to keep wreaking havoc. The Home Office has launched a consultation on their proposals to tackle the scourge of anti-social behaviour blighting communities. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said: 'Anti-social and reckless driving brings misery to communities across the country, from dangerous street racing to off-road bikes tearing through local parks. "By enabling police to seize and dispose of these vehicles within just 48 hours, we're giving our officers the tools they need to deliver immediate results and providing communities the swift justice they deserve.' Labour are also looking to hike the fines for the cost of seizing, towing and crushing vehicles. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already announced powers for police to seize bikes, e-scooters and cars without warning. The problem of nuisance driving has become so bad that some forces have launched dedicated operations to combat it. Operation Vulcan in Oldham has been targeting e-bikes, four of which were seized after their drivers were arrested for drug supply. National Police Chiefs' Council Lead for Roads Policing, Chief Constable Jo Shiner, said: 'Anti-social use of a vehicle, such as street racing, street cruising or off-road use is more than a matter of noise pollution. 'It can have long-term effects on a neighbourhood, with the criminal damage of roads, other vehicles and surrounding property.'