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Crime Blog UK - News and views on crime and investigations

• Asbo replacements ‘won’t work’, says Criminal Justice Alliance
  A new community trigger to force police to investigate any incident of anti-social behaviour reported by at least five people will do little to tackle the problem in the long term, campaigners said today. Theresa May’s plans to replace anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) will just repeat the old failings, creating...
  
  
• Police forces put £1.5bn privatisation plan on hold
  The proposal was being discussed at a time when forces face 20 per cent spending cuts. The biggest-ever police privatisation programme ran into difficulties yesterday when two forces at the centre of the £1.5bn scheme delayed the project in the face of stiff opposition. The private sector had been given...
  
  
• Potato suppliers scammed Sainsbury’s out of millions
  A director of a major potato firm who bribed a supermarket buyer with millions of pounds to secure huge overcharged contracts has been found guilty of corruption. Andrew Behagg, a 60-year-old finance director at food supplier Greenvale, faces a heavy prison sentence for passing on brown envelopes full of cash...
  
  
• Hourly billing for lawyers should end, says top judge
  The practice of huge hourly rates charged by solicitors should end because they reward inefficiency, the country’s second most senior judge said. Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, said an alternative to hourly billing for legal work is needed urgently. He said businesses that base their charges simply on...
  
  
• Rebekah Brooks to lift lid on David Cameron friendship at Leveson Inquiry
  Former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks is expected to lift the lid on her close relationship with the Prime Minister in evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today. David Cameron is said to have texted Mrs Brooks, telling her to “keep her head up” after she resigned from News International last...
  
  
• The Queen’s Speech: National crime agency unveiled to protect UK’s borders
  A US-style National Crime Agency to tackle serious and organised crime and protect the UK’s borders will be enshrined in laws unveiled by the Queen today. The agency has already been announced as a replacement for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which itself was heralded as “Britain’s FBI” when...
  
  
• Kate and Gerry McCann: We are more confident than ever Madeleine will be found
  Kate and Gerry McCann said yesterday that they were more confident than ever that their daughter Madeleine would be found. As the couple prepared to mark the fifth anniversary of the little girl’s disappearance, they appealed once again for the public’s help, expressing fears that the “burden” of the search...
  
  
• Detectives ran criminal record checks on Labour politicians
  Covert checks by private detectives on the background of Labour politicians are expected to take centre stage at the Leveson Inquiry tomorrow. At the start of what looks likely to be an explosive week of evidence at the inquiry into press ethics, Russell Middleton, temporary Assistant Chief Constable of Devon...
  
  
• Crackdown on top police officers ‘retiring’ to join private forces
  Anti-corruption pledges urged – but Surrey chief fears she cannot stop ‘distasteful’ exodus. Dozens of people involved in Britain’s biggest private-sector policing contract have been ordered to sign “anti-corruption” agreements amid concerns about senior officers retiring and then immediately rejoining on lucrative deals with security firms. Surrey Chief Constable Lynne...
  
  
• Cannabis: Britain’s growth industry
  At farms across the UK, business is booming – but now violent gangs are muscling in. Against the steady hum of an extractor fan, the handheld video camera pans over a small forest of green plants. The unmistakable serrated leaves of cannabis flutter as gentle gusts of warm air from...