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Police officer forced to strip down to her underwear wins £800,000 in discrimination caseA former firearms officer who was forced to strip down to her underwear during training has won over £800,000 in a sex discrimination case against West Midlands Police.Detective Inspector Rebecca Kalam was subject to sexual harassment and discrimination while working for the police force.
The government has agreed that all wrongly convicted sub-postmasters are entitled to compensation of £600,000 but they can only be paid once their convictions have been quashed.
Iran’s navy seizes Greek-owned oil tanker in Gulf of OmanIran’s navy seized St Nikolas, the oil tanker associated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation, on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian media reported. The oil tanker was once at the center of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington, officials said, a seizure that further escalated tensions in the Mideast waterways.The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker St Nikolas, which last year was confiscated by the United States for carrying Iranian oil, was boarded by armed intruders as it sailed close to the Omani city of Sohar, according to British maritime security firm Ambrey, and its AIS tracking system was turned off as it headed in the direction of the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jask.
Fujitsu may have to repay ‘fortune’ spent on Post Office scandal, Chalk saysFujitsu should repay the “fortune” spent on the Post Office scandal if it is found culpable, the justice secretary has suggested, as pressure increases on the firm behind the faulty Horizon software.If the statutory inquiry into the saga, which resumes on Thursday, finds the “scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine”, ministers would want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer”, Alex Chalk said.Hundreds of Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the technology firm’s flawed Horizon accounting system.The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, echoed these calls on Thursday. “I’d like to see whoever is at fault contribute. That is why we set up an independent inquiry that will report back,” she said. “Once we’ve got clear evidence on who is accountable, I think it’s really important that they contribute.”
Tears of sub-postmistress who won’t be saved by Sunak’s £600,000 compensation schemeAs an ITV drama about the long-running scandal sparked public outrage, the government announced on Wednesday it would overturn the convictions of more than 900 postmasters wrongly convicted in what Mr Sunak described as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.But while these postmasters are now eligible for £600,000 in compensation, those who were not convicted but wrongly ordered to pay back shortfalls in Post Office balance sheets – created by errors with Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system – will qualify only for a lesser £75,000 payment under the new plans.The Post Office has already conceded it owes compensation to thousands of postmasters forced to pay back these incorrect shortfalls, with 2,645 people so far offered an average of £44,450 in compensation since the initial Horizon Shortfall Scheme was set up in 2019. But one former sub-postmistress in Newcastle, who lost her life savings when she repaid a fake shortfall, gave an emotional interview on Thursday warning that the government’s new offer of £75,000 “just doesn’t cut it”.Sarah Burgess-Boyd, who was acquitted of theft at a trial in 2011 when the Post Office submitted no evidence, two years after she first reported seeing a shortfall on Horizon, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I have lost everything. I’ve lost my business, all my savings.“I haven’t got a penny to my name,” she said, her voice strained with emotion as she fought back tears. “I’m not future-proofed. I’m nearly 60, I have no pension provision. I’ve lost my reputation – l lost everything.”
Over 80,000 jobs slashed in Greece when tourism season endedThe end of the 2023 tourism season came later than in previous years, resulting in the loss of 82,463 jobs in November, 56,659 of which came from hotels and accommodation.At the same time, a Manpower Group survey puts Greece among the four countries in the world with the highest rate of employers (82%) complaining about talent shortages.
Fujitsu gave £2.6m payoff to former UK boss in 2020, filings suggestThe former UK boss of Fujitsu, the technology firm whose flawed IT system is at the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal, received a £2.6m payoff after standing down from the company in 2019, corporate filings suggest.Earlier this week, the Guardian revealed that the company’s UK arm had paid out millions in salaries and share bonuses to directors last year, after reporting £22m in profits thanks in part to major government contracts.
Crackdown on beach trespassersSeeking to bring order to the chaos created by businesses trespassing on Greece’s beaches, Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis presented a new bill at a press conference on Thursday, setting strict conditions for the exploitation of seashores. The new rules stipulate that the boundaries of the seashore will be registered electronically and concession areas will be strictly predetermined, with the introduction of “untouchable beaches” in Natura designated regions.The pubic’s lack of access to many beaches around Greece due to the illegal encroachment by businesses with umbrellas and sun beds sparked the “beach towel” movement last summer. Basically, locals took matters into their own hands by reclaiming their beaches and access to the sea, without having to pay for it.
Nearly 100 people died in one week due to Covid complicationsA total of 93 people died in one week from complications caused by Covid-19, according to the epidemiological report of the Public National Health Organization (EODY) for January 1-7.The report said that apart from the deaths and growing numbers of intubated patients, Covid hospital admissions increased further by 15%.
ITV drama is inaccurate, says one half of Post Office ‘Gruesome Twosome’A Post Office executive portrayed as hounding the widow of a postmaster who took his own life has insisted she is not how she was depicted in the ITV drama.Pictured for the first time since Mr Bates vs the Post Office aired, Angela Van den Bogerd broke her silence to say that claims she had forced Gina Grifftiths to sign a non-disclosure agreement were not accurate.The 58-year-old was the director in charge of handling complaints about Horizon from 2010.Mrs Van den Bogerd is said to be the executive who knew more about Horizon than anyone else.She had been fielding complaints about the system since 2010 and was part of an initial mediation scheme created in 2014.Mrs Van den Bogerd also appeared before MPs at a parliamentary select committee inquiry into Horizon in 2015 and co-authored an internal report on the software.At the public inquiry, Jennifer O’Dell, a postmistress, claimed that she was bullied and intimidated by Mrs Van den Bogerd at a hearing concerning her suspension in 2010.She left the Post Office in 2020 when she was appointed head of people by the Football Association of Wales, a job she eventually left amid criticism of her suitability after the Post Office scandal.
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Topic: 11/01/24 (Read 899 times)
