Police hunt three men after cash machine theft attempt in Annan
Det Insp Scott Wilson said: "As part of inquiries, we are carrying out a review of CCTV and carrying out door-to-door inquiries."We have established that a black Mercedes A class was seen in the area around 01:00 prior to the attempted theft."He asked anyone with doorbell camera or dashcam footage to get in touch.A spokesperson for the supermarket giant confirmed the machine had been left unable to operate."The ATM at our Annan superstore is currently out of order following an incident that occurred in the early hours of this morning," he said."We apologise for the inconvenience."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Huge change coming for Aussie childcare centres
Mobile phone bans and a rollout of CCTV in childcare centres will head the agenda when state and federal education ministers convene on Friday to discuss sector reforms. Mandatory child safety training and a national register of carers will be on the agenda at a crucial meeting of Australia's education ministers. The federal government is set to table $189million worth of funding over four years to tackle problems in the under-fire sector, describing it as the biggest child safety package the early learning sector has ever seen. Backing up recent tweaks to Working With Children Checks, which made bans nationally applicable, federal minister Jason Clare wants a register that will let regulators see who's working in childcare centres and where. Asked if this would address issues with people failing a Working With Children Check in one state and going to another state to get a job, Mr Clare said work was being done on that issue. 'If we get approval today, work will start immediately,' he told Seven's Sunrise program on Friday. 'We've got to build that (the register) from scratch - we will have to pass laws to make it mandatory for centres to put the information in.' Mr Clare said, if approved, trials would be conducted by December, with a view to rolling out a register from February next year. Along with mandatory training, Friday's meeting is set to tackle a national CCTV assessment, more centre spot checks, a mobile phone ban, and harsher penalties for breaches of standards. It will also consider how parents can be given more information about the condition of childcare centres. Mr Clare said no parent should have to wonder if their kids are safe in childcare. 'We need a national register to ensure we know who is caring for our children, and their work history,' he said. 'We also need mandatory child safety training ... the overwhelming majority of childcare workers are awesome at what they do, caring for and educating our children, they are just as angry as everyone else.' The meeting comes about a month after Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with dozens of sex offences, including allegedly sexually abusing eight children. Brown is known to have worked at 24 facilities between 2017 and the time of his arrest. The government has initiated compliance action against 30 early childhood centres under laws passed by federal parliament in July. Under the changes, funding will be stripped from centres not meeting safety standards. The Working With Children Check changes will mean anyone prevented from holding a check in one state or territory will be automatically banned across the nation. But a national check is not on the cards, with jurisdictions to continue managing their systems. Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh said state and federal governments would act 'shoulder-to-shoulder' to make the sector safer. 'Our investment of up to $189million is the biggest child safety package the early learning sector has ever seen,' she said. Federal opposition education spokesman Jonno Duniam called for state and federal ministers to commit to measures 'that will truly shift the dial in improving child safety'. 'The Albanese government must take up a leadership role in pushing the states and territories to implement reforms, and there must be no delay in their uptake,' he said. 'Bureaucratic hurdles are no excuse for parents who expect safer childcare centres immediately, not by the end of the year or after.'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Hotels braced for a wave of protests: Up to 30 targeted as residents turn up heat to follow Epping precedent
A wave of protests are set to sweep the country this weekend targeting migrant hotels. Anti-immigration campaigners are looking to ride on the back of this week's landmark judgment that saw the High Court order the removal of migrants from a hotel in Epping, Essex. Protests at up to 30 hotels are believed to be planned as communities seek to replicate the ruling for The Bell Hotel, which, pending an appeal, must be closed within weeks. The hotel had been at the centre of protests after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl, which he denies. Hotels in Cannock, Chichester and Tamworth are among those expected to be targeted by demonstrations, with anti-racism groups already organising counter-protests in 15 locations across the three-day Bank Holiday weekend. They are prepared to turn up tonight in the likes of Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leicester, Leeds, Orpington, Perth, Aberdeen and Altrincham. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has used Epping as a rallying cry, saying: 'Let's hold peaceful protests outside hotels and put pressure on councils to go to court to try to get illegal immigrants out.' On Tuesday, a judge granted a temporary injunction against migrants being housed at The Bell Hotel after Epping Forest council argued that it was necessary for 'the safety of nearby residents' and to reduce the threat of 'violent protests'. As it tried, unsuccessfully, to intervene in the case at the eleventh hour, the Home Office argued that granting Epping's application 'runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests'. The ruling threatens to collapse Labour's asylum system as protesters take to the streets and councils across the country prepare to hit the Home Office with copycat litigation over the use of hotels in their areas. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has written to all Conservative councils pledging support for any legal action, while Reform UK's leaders have encouraged people to protest at their local asylum hotels. But anti-racism groups have warned the ruling sets a 'dangerous precedent', with Stand Up To Racism saying that it will 'embolden the far-Right to call more protests outside hotels housing refugees'. Labour grandee Lord Falconer urged the Home Office to appeal against the Epping judgment on Thursday as he admitted the ruling 'causes great problems' for the Government. The peer, who served as justice secretary under Sir Tony Blair and as Sir Keir Starmer's shadow attorney general, said it 'gives rise to the expectation that some asylum hotels can be closed'. Lord Falconer said the ruling presents Labour with a 'very troublesome issue, namely does demonstrations outside these hotels lead to it being more likely that they will be closed'. Urging the Government 'very strongly' to appeal, he told Radio 4's Today programme: 'It puts the courts and the politicians in a difficult position. 'There should be clarity on that and the authority in relation to that can only come from the Court of Appeal.' The Home Office still could not say whether or not it plans to appeal on Thursday. But pressure was mounting on the Government as all Tory councillors were sent a draft motion, produced by the Conservative Research Department and the Conservative Councillors' Association, 'strongly urging' them to follow Epping's example. It included instructions on how to influence their local authorities. Stevenage became the latest Labour-run council to say it would consider taking legal action over an asylum hotel in the Hertfordshire borough as the internal revolt grew. The council had already warned a Novotel hotel it must stop housing asylum seekers or face planning enforcement action, and on Thursday said it was 'actively investigating alleged breaches' as it considered legal action similar to Epping's. Ministers were scrambling to find contingency plans to house migrants, with officials looking at houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), empty tower blocks, disused teacher training colleges and old student accommodation as alternatives. The asylum minister, Dame Angela Eagle, told the Commons home affairs committee in June that the Government had shifted its focus from old military barracks to smaller locations such as tower blocks. However, the Guardian reported officials are still considering placing people removed from hotels in the RAF Wethersfield base in Essex and Napier Barracks in Kent. Meanwhile, it was also reported that asylum accommodation contractors working for the Home Office have contacted property specialists, seeking 5,000 residential units in towns and cities to house migrants. But a Government minister could not answer when quizzed on where asylum seekers should go instead of hotels on Thursday. Asked 'where will they go?', schools minister Catherine McKinnell said: 'Well, I mean, that's a big question.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Double killer could be deported back to Scotland from US
A double killer is facing deportation back to Scotland after he was detained by agents from America's ICE immigration service. Phillip Harkins, 46, originally from Greenock, shot a man dead with an assault rifle during a botched drug deal in Florida in 1999. After fleeing back to the UK, Harkins then crashed a car into a taxi and killed its 62-year-old passenger, Jean O'Neill, also of Greenock. Harkins was jailed for five years for causing O'Neill's death by dangerous driving, but was extradited to America despite his 14-year court battle against the decision and sent to prison for second-degree murder. He was due to be released from jail next week but was detained just before his release date. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Florida have revealed he is back in custody and facing a deportation court hearing. This week a source at Florida's justice department said: 'Phillip Harkins is … detained at Baker County detention facility under a court order. He was detained towards the end of his prison sentence.' The ICE agency is a frequent subject of controversy regarding its enforcement practices, particularly involving arrests and deportations. US activists have claimed immigrants at the detention centre where Harkins is being held are experiencing abuse including lack of adequate hygiene and food. Harkins shot 22-year-old Joshua Hayes in the head at close range during a drug deal in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1999. After his arrest for murder, he jumped bail and returned to Greenock to stay with his grandmother Annie Harkins, who has since died. He told her he had returned for a holiday. Despite being a fugitive, he managed to get a job in the accounts department of a Glasgow company. At the time of his arrest in 2003 over O'Neill's death, Scottish police discovered there was an international arrest warrant in his name and alerted the FBI, who began extradition proceedings. Three months after Harkins's release from prison in March 2006, he was rearrested and the home secretary at the time, John Reid, ordered that he be extradited. Harkins then launched a series of appeals that lasted another 11 years. The killer claimed sending him back to face justice in the US would breach his human rights. The case went all the way to the European Court and became the UK's longest ever extradition court battle. The lengthy pre-Brexit legal process angered the prime minister, David Cameron, who said British laws were too often being overturned by unelected judges in Strasbourg. Harkins was finally extradited in 2017 after US prosecutors assured the British authorities they would not seek the death penalty if he was convicted. In 2018 he admitted guilt over the death of Joshua Hayes. He was sentenced to 25 years for second degree murder, with credit for time served dating back to killing O'Neill in 2003. He could be returned to Scotland if Ice succeed in removing him from the US. At the time of Hayes's murder, his mother, Patricia Gallagher, said: 'Josh was my oldest. So, yeah, it's hard. Josh has got grandchildren now but he'll never know. He's got a son that never got a chance to know him.'
