logo
Scottish hoaxers are in on the great tea swindle – but what about Meghan's and Fergie's brews? JAN MOIR

Scottish hoaxers are in on the great tea swindle – but what about Meghan's and Fergie's brews? JAN MOIR

Daily Mail​9 hours ago

What is it about tea that brings out the worst in people? Not those who drink it. Those who sell it.
In Scotland, the celebrated Wee Tea Plantation Company has turned out to be a massive scam, with cheap tea imported from abroad then passed off as tea lovingly grown in a field in Perthshire, and sold off at 100 times the cost to grand hotels such as Gleneagles, the Balmoral in Edinburgh and the Dorchester in London. Ten years ago there was a launch in New York attended by then First Minister and actor Alan Cumming.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Woman offered to lick police officer's privates
Woman offered to lick police officer's privates

Glasgow Times

time4 hours ago

  • Glasgow Times

Woman offered to lick police officer's privates

The drunk 54-year-old jumped on one officer's back and bit her, spat at another and then made the sexualised comment while standing in Clydebank police office. Shona McPhail was with a man in Red Moss Road, Clydebank, after being spoken to by officers in an unrelated incident. READ NEXT: Former Catholic priest admits repeated abuse of boy more than 40 years ago READ NEXT: Serious organised crime unit cop sentenced for sexually assaulting colleagues on duty She was shouting and the man told her to sit in his vehicle to stop her from being loud in the street. Police asked her to stop, at which point she turned up the radio to play "extremely loud music". The woman, of Howie Crescent, Rosneath, was informed she was under arrest and an officer tried to lean into the passenger side window to arrest her. "McPhail got out and leapt onto the back of the officer," fiscal depute Mandy Robertson told Dumbarton Sheriff Court. A second officer tried to pull her off, causing them to fall back. The first officer straddled McPhail on the ground, and the woman struck out to their face with an open palm. "She then grabbed the officer's left wrist, dug her nails into her skin, causing abrasions and some skin to come off," said the prosecutor. "I have got germs, bite her," said McPhail. She tried to bite the officer and another officer came to assist. She spat at their left leg. An officer removed their baton and placed a spit hood on McPhail. She was taken to Clydebank police office and while at the charge bar, she tried to get the attention of one of the officers. They refused to engage, so McPhail turned to one of them, looked at the male officer's lower body and then up to their face. "I'll lick your d**k, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" she said. McPhail was asked to stop as it was making him uncomfortable. "But I've seen you on TikTok," she replied. Mrs Robertson said the officer was distressed by the situation. McPhail pleaded guilty in May to assaulting one officer by striking her to the head, seizing her on the arm and digging her fingernails into the arm and trying to bite her. She admitted assaulting a second officer by spitting on his body. And she pleaded guilty to directing a sexual remark at a third officer for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing or alarming him. The charge was under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act. The incidents all happened on September 5 last year. At sentencing on June 20, defence solicitor Jonathan Paul said his client was "ashamed of her actions". "She has very little recollection of what happened," he said. "She had drunk a lot of alcohol and was severely intoxicated." Mr Paul said the "root cause" was alcohol abuse, which she felt "can be managed". But she accepted she would have to give it up. Sheriff Sean Lynch said: "What I have heard about is quite frankly disgraceful behaviour and when I take that together with your record, there's no doubt the threshold of custodial sentence is met here." As a direct alternative to custody, she will be supervised by social workers for 12 months. She must also stay within her home from 7pm to 7am for the next four months. Because her comment to the officer was under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act, she had to go on the sex offenders register. Previously, that would mean she was on the sex offenders register for a year. The High Court recently decided it should be five years when a case has more than one aspect of punishment, such as supervision and curfew.

Police search for bogus roofer who conned homeowners
Police search for bogus roofer who conned homeowners

BBC News

time4 hours ago

  • BBC News

Police search for bogus roofer who conned homeowners

Police are searching for a "heartless" fraudster who skipped his sentencing hearing after conning homeowners by convincing them to part with thousands of pounds for unnecessary Lee had previous convictions and had been released from jail under licence but continued to swindle eight victims across north-west England, with three in Stockport, Greater 39-year-old, of Preston, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to eight fraud offences including one relating to a loss of £118,000 before a trial was due to start at Preston Crown then failed to attending a further hearing earlier this month when he was sentenced in his absence to 10 years in prison. A warrant has since been issued for his arrest following the investigation by Lancashire Police and trading standards departments in Stockport and Halton, Cheshire. Lee had traded under the names Drysky Property Services and Dedicated Roofing Solutions, with victims – many of whom were vulnerable - targeted for unnecessary, substandard or incomplete property work, the court heard. Police also discovered his cousin Eli Young, who was living with him in Rosemary Lane, Bartle, was also involved in defrauding three of the 41-year-old was also sentenced to four years' sentencing, Judge Unsworth described the offending as "deliberate, planned and heartless."Councillor Dan Oliver, cabinet member for public protection at Stockport Council, said: "These types of crimes have a detrimental impact on the victims long after they are committed and I hope they gain some small comfort from the sentencing." Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.

Ex-Dundee University chief feels the pain of Holyrood mauling
Ex-Dundee University chief feels the pain of Holyrood mauling

Times

time7 hours ago

  • Times

Ex-Dundee University chief feels the pain of Holyrood mauling

Y ou watch mesmerised, but also a little nauseous, when a Holyrood committee lays into one of its victims. It's like seeing a ring of jackals circling a wounded gazelle. One after the other they lunge in and snap at the wretched creature. You know it doesn't stand a chance, but it's hard to take your eyes off its death throes. Thus it was that Professor Iain Gillespie, former principal of Dundee University, whose leadership, or lack of it, exposed that institution to a £35 million debt, the loss of 300 jobs, and even possible closure, faced Holyrood's education committee. His attackers brushed off the 'heartfelt apologies' he offered for what had happened, and gathered for the attack. Jackal-in-chief Douglas Ross, the committee convener, listed Gillespie's failings: 'hubris … overbearing behaviour … dangerous over-confidence … arrogance'. These, he said, were only some of the conclusions of Professor Pamela Gillies, whose independent report revealed a catalogue of failures.

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