Latest news with #cleaningstaff
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Airline staff in court after being caught on camera stealing alcohol, cigarettes and PRINGLES off planes
Aircraft cleaning staff have been caught stealing alcohol, cigarettes and Pringles after an airline installed CCTV cameras. Aer Lingus became suspicious after noticing 'significant stock loss' on two of its aircraft at Manchester Airport. Secret cameras were installed on the planes and caught ten employees helping themselves to food, causing one member of staff to call his colleagues 'thieving b******s'. The thieves were caught cutting seals to gain access to the food and used tools to break open security seals, Manchester Crown Court heard. Eleven members of staff; Connor Brooks, 28; Jonathan Etchells, 39; Dylan Nelson, 20; Richard Armer, 28; Usman Ghani, 25; Katie Moran, 36; Ciaran Lynch, 31; Mark Hicks, 37; Roman Mahmood, 21; and Shawn Bailey, 52, all admitted theft. Philip Hall, prosecuting said the defendants were all working for a company subcontracted to clean two Aer Lingus planes based at Manchester Airport. The aircraft flew between Manchester and New York. Covert cameras were installed onto the aircraft after the airline became aware of 'significant stock loss' during May and June 2023, with cigarettes, alcohol and perfumes going missing. The cameras, in operation over a few days in July and August that year, caught cleaning staff red-handed, breaking into storage containers and trolleys, cutting seals and opening security tags. On Saturday, July, 29, the cameras caught Brooks and Bailey checking the weight of containers to investigate which ones contained items. Brooks said: 'Nah, s*** again man.' While Etchells said: 'It's not worth doing.' Brooks later said: 'It's been a bad day for the last five.' Prosecutors claimed the interaction showed it was not the first day they had stolen from the aircraft. Brooks told Ghani 'get your clippers' after noting a container was 'full of Pringles'. On July 30, Moran joked to Brooks, Etchells and Hicks as they were searching containers, telling them 'you're under arrest'. The footage showed alcohol and sleeves of cigarettes being stolen. Brooks could be seen stuffing miniature bottles of alcohol into a pillow case. The thieves could be heard discussing stealing perfumes, to which Moran and Etchells both said they had 'loads at home'. Brooks replied: 'I want more, or is that too greedy?' Later, Brooks talked about not getting 'too greedy'. As Brooks stuffed boxes of perfumes into a pillow case, Nelson told him: 'Nice little day today Connor.' He replied 'I've hit it for the last five', before adding 'well it's my third day today'. On August 1, Armer and another person could be seen using a 'red axe' to break the security seal for a container containing three small tubes of Pringles. 'He appears to have gone to a lot of effort to steal some crisps,' Mr Hall said. Minutes later, Armer could be heard laughing as he opened the door to a container before someone else took more tubes of Pringles. 'Thieving ba*****s,' he said, referring to colleagues.' During the period in which the cameras were installed, €1,290.10 worth of products were stolen from the two aircraft. The ten defendants were charged with theft between July 29 and August 4, 2023, the period which the €1,290.10 figure relates to. But the court heard that thefts are believed to have occurred over a longer period, and the wider loss to Aer Lingus was said to be about €200,000. All ten were sentenced to 12 month community orders, and ordered to carry out unpaid work. Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester, said the defendants who had been involved in selling stolen goods would be given higher amounts of unpaid work. Etchells, Lynch and Armer were ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, while the other seven were told to complete 80 hours. The judge noted that most of the defendants had previously faced a conspiracy charge, and that at first it seemed to involve 'organised crime'. But the charge was not proceeded with, and Judge Dean instead described the stealing as 'a form of casual theft' which became 'systematic'. He said: 'It is clear from an overview of the evidence in this case, that really what was happening is that nearly everybody seemed to be at it, and when individuals saw that others were involved in theft, they became involved too. This is serious offending because of the level of trust invested in you.' Brooks, of Thornsgreen Road, Wythenshawe; Etchells, of Staithes Road, Wythenshawe; Nelson, of Bideford Drive, Wythenshawe; Mahmood, of Broom Lane, Levenshulme; Armer, of Chesham Avenue, Wythenshawe, Ghani, of Langthorne Street, Burnage; Moran, of Plowden Road, Wythenshawe; Lynch, of Austell Road, Wythenshawe; Bailey, of Fountains Road, Stretford; and Hicks, of Staithes Road, Wythenshawe; all pleaded guilty to theft from their employer.
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to axe 30 cleaner jobs
A hospital is planning to make cleaners redundant as part of a cost saving BBC has learned that cleaning staff at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) have been told 30 jobs are to go across the trusts two sites at Pembury and cuts are part of wider cost improvement programme at the trust to save more than £70m in 2025/26. A spokesperson for MTW said that no final decisions had been made and that the trust was "committed to engaging with affected staff and unions throughout the process". The redundancy plans have worried families who lost loved ones at the hospital 20 years ago. At least 90 patients died at Maidstone Hospital between 2004 and 2006 in a outbreak. Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is a type of bacteria that can cause diarrhoea and can spread quickly in hospitals. A report into the deaths cited a lack of cleanliness as a contributing factor to the family member who's mother-in-law died during the outbreak, told the BBC that cleaners were "vital" to maintain safety standards and to make them redundant was "scandalous". UNISON regional manager Ryan Slaughter said: "Hospitals need more staff, not fewer workers, if delays and waits are to end."Cutting jobs and services will mean patients will have to wait longer to be seen and make staffing levels less added that ministers needed to deal with the "recruitment and retention crisis in the health service". A spokesperson for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: "We are currently reviewing services across the Trust in line with a national focus on treating more patients, improving efficiencies and ensuring long-term sustainability. During this period, our priority remains the delivery of high quality care to the communities we serve and supporting our staff." Hundreds of NHS workers across the south east are facing uncertainty over their jobs because of a planned government announced in March it wanted integrated care boards (ICBs) to halve their running costs. ICB's are NHS organisations responsible for planning health services for their local Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said the changes were part of a transformation plan to "tackle inefficiencies and drive up productivity in the NHS".
