Benefit Fraud: No excuses for stealing from the taxpayer

Benefit Fraud - the excusesA benefit fraudster who claimed his wife was really his sister, and another who said she needed the cash for satellite TV, are among the latest examples of strange excuses that Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) benefit fraud investigators have heard over the last year.

Other odd stories told to DWP officers include a claimant who, using a fake ID, said her skin colour had changed after a road accident; a man who blamed his evil twin; and a woman who claimed she wasn’t in a relationship but just had a three-night stand resulting in three children over five years.

Votes for Expat Brits - what you can do

Votes for Expat BritsMembers of the Votes for Expat Brits Campaign Team continue to get asked what can be done to keep promoting the campaign.

There are 10 things that we can all do, on an ongoing basis, to encourage and promote our campaign...

Harry Schindler writes to the Daily Mail

Harry SchindlerHarry Shindler aged 92 and a veteran of the Anzio Beach-head invasion in Italy by the allied troops against the German Nazi occupation of Italy in 1944 - Italy had surrendered in September 1943.

The  insulting  attitude of the Daily Mail towards pensioners residing in continental Europe was the spur for Harry to write this letter.

McCann case: Anger over new suspect

mccanns When Scotland Yard launched its Madeleine McCann investigation, it called for ‘restraint’ from the British media. Meanwhile, a Portuguese law forbids police here from divulging inside information about on-going criminal investigations.

So how come newspapers in both Britain and Portugal have identified and published sensational stories about another implausible ‘prime suspect’ in this case?

Madeleine McCann: so what's new?

Madeline views from Len PortIn the massive publicity campaign, viewers had been promised a ‘revelation’ but the only revelation during the BBC’s special Crimewatch programme on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was how slow Scotland Yard detectives seem to have been in getting up to speed on the case and how shallow the BBC was in its reporting. To read the conclusion of this insight, click HERE.

 

Madeleine case - "Portugal needs to reopen the case..."

Photofit of Madeleine suspect"...if not there will be no progress". There has been an overwhelming response to last night’s appeal on BBC’s Crimewatch in the Madeleine McCann case.

The broadcast to the UK public included the release of a photofit of a man they need to trace, seen carrying a child in the direction of the Priaia da Luz beach at 10.10pm o the night of her disappearance.

Can the media help find Madeleine?

Praia da LuzThe media hype that has surrounded the Madeleine McCann mystery for the past six years has been unleashed with renewed vigour by none other than Scotland Yard.

On announcing that their ‘Operation Grange’ review of the case had been elevated to a full-scale inquiry in July, Scotland Yard asked for “media restraint” in the coming weeks and months as it began what was interpreted as the last chance to find out what happened to Madeleine.

McCanns’ €1 million libel action

Goncalo AmaralThe unanswered question of what happened to Madeleine is at the root of the McCanns vs Amaral libel hearing now underway in Lisbon.

With the hearing in recess for a few days, it is perhaps a good moment to reflect dispassionately on just how polarised public opinion is over the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance more than six years ago.

The question is not for the libel hearing to consider, of course, but this legal action once again highlights the fact that public opinion is broadly split into two camps.

The McCanns have always insisted their daughter was abducted. During the original investigation, the lead detective Gonçalo Amaral became convinced she died in the holiday apartment, that her body was secretly disposed of, and that the McCanns lied about it.