Two arrested in Worcester over reports of gun threat
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The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Team breaking scams ‘spell' stops £3.5m going to criminals in first half of 2025
A fraud prevention team set up to 'break the spell' on victims has stopped £3.5 million of funds getting into the hands of criminals in the first six months of this year. Santander UK's specialist Break the Spell team intervenes in situations where it is suspected that customers are being tricked and manipulated by scammers such as romance and payments fraudsters. Victims of crimes such as romance fraud can end up being highly manipulated by a complex web of stories. They may also be discouraged by criminals from speaking to anyone or encouraged to lie if their loved ones or their bank ask them what is happening. Santander's specially-trained team, which uses behavioural psychology, encourages people to open up and supports them, for example by signposting them to further sources of support such as Citizens Advice and the Samaritans, depending on the circumstances. Cases may be referred to it when there are 'red flags' with payments that people are attempting to make. Referrals may also be made from branches. Michelle Pilsworth, head of fraud and customer experience, said the crime dealt with by the team 'is a particularly horrible and cruel crime'. She told the PA news agency that the team supports people who have been tricked into sending money to people they believe they are in a relationship with, as well as people who have been tricked into believing they are helping organisations such as the police or HM Revenue and Customs. Ms Pilsworth said: 'The reason it's complex is the level of social engineering… a quick call is not going to 'break the spell'.' She continued: 'We have to work a long time with them to try and help them see that that is a spell that they're under.' Ms Pilsworth said the team was set up to help understand what fraud victims are going through and to 'work with them'. In some cases, victims may be starting to have their own doubts about a fraud following an initial call from the bank, by the time they are contacted by the Break the Spell team. 'Quite often they will say by that point: 'Yes, it doesn't sound right, I've had time to think',' Ms Pilsworth said. 'At that point we will break the spell and we will educate them and stop the payment, protect the funds, all that good stuff.' But for some people, further intervention may be needed, she said, which could be via calls or branch visits. Staff work to build trust with the customer over time. As the customer explains to staff what they have been told, seeds of doubt in the customer's mind may then start to emerge, for example if they recall that they were expecting to meet the romance scammer but they did not turn up. Ms Pilsworth said: 'We get them to realise what's happening to them. And then, it's all about support, how do we support that person.' Scammers will often try to regain their victim's trust, and so for some people, changing their phone number is a way to stop contact. Some scammers may even pretend that they can help victims recoup funds they have already lost. 'Many colleagues keep customers for days, weeks, sometimes months, because it's a long process,' said Ms Pilsworth. Sometimes people may feel embarrassed or angry, but Ms Pilsworth said: 'We say: 'Look, this can happen to anybody, from the work we've done we can see this happens to anyone'.'
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Mapped: London's knife crime hotspots revealed
Knife crime in London has surged by nearly 60 per cent in the past three years, new analysis has revealed. The West End is the capital's knife crime hotspot, accounting for one in every 15 knife attacks in London, the report from the Policy Exchange think tank said. The research found that in 2024, one small area of around 20 streets in London's West End near Oxford Circus and Regent Street had more knife crime than nearly 15 per cent of the rest capital combined. Across the UK, knife crime recorded by the police decreased by 1 per cent in the year ending March 2025 to 53,047 offences, compared to the previous year, which saw 53,685 offences. The Metropolitan Police, which is the force for most of London, accounted for 31 per cent of all knife crime across England and Wales in 2024. There were 108 knife crime offences in the highest hotspot in the West End, which was more than the 716 'safest' areas combined. This area includes Oxford Circus and parts of New Bond Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus. These areas, known as Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs), are geographical areas which comprise of comprise a resident population of between 1,000 and 3,000 people. The top 200 LSOAs for knife crime within London reported 3,615 knife crimes in 2024, according to Policy Exchange. The report recommended that the Met Police should introduce a 'zero tolerance' approach in the top 20 knife crime hotspots. Officers in these areas would conduct 'very high volumes' of stop and searches, it suggested. It also recommended that permanent live facial recognition systems should be deployed in each of the top knife crime hotspots in London, with officers deployed at peak times. David Spencer, a former Met detective and author of the report, said: 'The only approach which will both work and be recognised by the public as working is a 'zero-tolerance' approach to crime and criminals – particularly in those locations where crime is rife.' Most knife crime offences in London are robberies, official statistics show, with mobile phones a key target. Of the 16,789 knife crime offences committed in 2024, 62 per cent (10,346) of these were robberies. Earlier this year, The Independent revealed there were at least 83,900 phone theft offences recorded across the country in the 12 months to July last year – almost double the 45,800 five years previously. The figures obtained from 29 forces show the Metropolitan Police dealt with more than three-quarters of all mobile phone thefts (64,224) last year, followed by Kent Police (1,722), South Yorkshire Police (1,577) and Lancashire Police (1,467). Commander Hayley Sewart, lead for knife crime at the Metropolitan Police Service, said: 'Tackling violent crime is our top priority and every month across London we are making over 1,000 more arrests than we were last year - with knife-related crime (16 per cent) and robbery (13 per cent) both falling significantly. 'We are putting more officers in neighbourhoods than ever before, using our stop and search powers to take 17,500 weapons off the streets over the past four years, and deploying new technology and data-driven tactics to bring offenders to justice.' A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: 'Nothing is more important to the mayor than keeping Londoners safe and he is determined to continue leading from the front to build a safer London for all. 'Thanks to the hard work of the Met Police and partners, homicides, gun crime with lethal barrel discharges, knife crime with injury and burglary are all down since 2016 and last year teen murders were the lowest they've been in over a decade.' 'Record funding from the mayor and an enhanced approach to neighbourhood policing in the West End has led to personal robberies falling by 20 per cent and violence with injury reducing by 25 per cent in the last year. 'The mayor is determined to build on this progress – his record £1.16bn funding has secured 935 police officers and he has worked closely with the commissioner to increase the number of police officers on the beat in the West End, plus additional police officers working in new or enhanced town centre teams in hotspot areas.'
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- BBC News
Pensioner's hotel scalding death could have been prevented
The death of a pensioner who was fatally scalded after being trapped in a Perthshire hotel room bath could have been avoided, an inquiry has Hunter died at the Pitlochry Hydro in 2019 after being trapped in the bath, while guests and emergency services tried to smash in the door.A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) found that the failure of safety components in the unmaintained bath tap caused Mr Hunter to accidentally discharge scalding water into the bath in which he was hotel is under new ownership following the collapse of Specialist Leisure Group in 2020. Mr Hunter's family said the judgement was "the most difficult thing we have ever had to read".His son Keir previously described the 90-minute effort to rescue his father as "a horror story." Efforts to help the 75-year-old from Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, were hampered by the door opening outwards and being bolted from the John MacRitchie ruled that Mr Hunter's death could have been avoided if there had been annual maintenance of the bath tap and "a more formal analysis of guest complaints about the discharge of excessively hot water in the hotel bathrooms."The sheriff said: "These defects on the balance of probabilities contributed to the death and the accident resulting in the death of Mr Hunter. "It is reasonable to infer that the lack of, not just annual, but any maintenance of the tap and its components did in fact contribute to the death."The sheriff added that the fitting of a bathroom door lock release, operable from the bedroom, would have allowed emergency access to the bathroom to remove Mr Hunter from the water and could also have prevented his inquiry heard that all bathrooms at the hotel with outward-opening doors have now had their locks removed completely. Mr Hunter was staying at the hotel with his wife Janice at the time of the incident in December was found to have suffered third-degree burns to 83% of his body after fire crews finally managed to break down the inquiry heard that a Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the mixer tap in the bathroom was more than 30 years temperature control was "very sensitive", and it did not satisfactorily isolate the hot water when the cold water shut inquiry heard that a number of complaints about the controls, high temperatures, "boiling hot" showers or lack of cold water were recorded in the hotel maintenance log in the nine months leading up to Mr Hunter's death. In a joint statement issued by Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, Mr Hunter's son Keir and his daughter Kimberley said: ''The sheriff's judgement is the most difficult thing we have ever had to read."It describes in full detail our dad's excruciating and drawn-out final moments but also shines a light on the fact that his death could and would have been avoided had the hotel used qualified maintenance staff and had the most basic of maintenance regimes in place for its hot water supply."The fault which caused our father's death had been complained about by many previous guests and was well known to the the hotel management. "They ignored these warnings."
