The son of former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski has been arrested for allegedly supplying prohibited drugs on the dark web. Mark Chikarovski, 37, was arrested at his Bondi apartment and taken to the Waverley police station where he is assisting police with inquiries. The Cybercrime Squad in NSW set up Strike Force Cesta in January 2023 to investigate the supply of prohibited drugs across the state via dark web marketplaces. Police identified a marketplace facilitating the supply of cocaine, methylamphetamine and MDMA in exchange for cryptocurrency.
A 42-year-old man has been arrested and jailed after deliberately setting fire to a mosque in St. Paul, Minnesota. This marks the sixth attack on Muslim houses of worship in the state this year. The Oromo American Tawhid Islamic Center was severely damaged in the fire along with a community center. No one was inside the mosque at the time and no injuries were reported. The executive director for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for mosques across Minnesota to increase their security and for police to bolster patrols around them.
Francisco Oropeza, the man accused of killing five of his neighbours after storming into their Texas home, is revealed by his lawyers to have been generous and well-liked, and tension had been building for quite some time. Both attorneys Anthony Osso and Lisa Andrews claim that what led up to the murders is “more complicated and much different a picture than that original witness statement”, but have yet to comment on what happened the night of the shooting or what Oropeza may have told them. Oropeza is facing five counts of murder and his next court date is Aug. 10.
Tejay Fletcher has pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to charges including making or supplying an article for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possession of criminal property, and transferring criminal property, carried out through his iSpoof website. The site, which earned more than £3.2m ($4.3m) in Bitcoins over less than three years, provided a software tool that enabled criminals to trick people into believing they were speaking to their bank on the telephone by showing false phone numbers. The fraudulent scheme led to the losses of £100m globally, including £43m in the UK. Fletcher will be sentenced on 29 October.
An 18-year-old driver has been arrested after he allegedly hit three schoolboys who were walking across a street in Sydney before driving away from the scene. All of the pedestrians, the youngest of whom was 12, were taken to hospital with injuries. The teenager has been charged with seven different driving offences, including negligent driving and causing injury by misconduct. He is due to appear in court on Friday.
Kouri Richins, who wrote a children's book about grief after her husband's death, was found to have changed her husband's life insurance years before she allegedly killed him through fatal poisoning. According to newly updated charging documents, Richins purchased four life insurance policies on her husband's life without his knowledge from 2015 to 2017 with benefits totaling nearly $2m. She is currently accused of fatally poisoning her husband with a cocktail laced with almost five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. Richins' detention hearing that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed until 12 June 2022.
Reports of crimes by young people working odd jobs, known as “yami baito” or “dark part-time jobs" in Japan, have risen in the country, prompting higher police alert levels and calls for further preventative action. The jobs are advertised through social media, promising high rates of pay and no requirement for the applicant to undergo any background checks. Once employed, however, jobholders are often asked to participate in illegal scams such as carrying out robberies or becoming couriers for money obtained through fraud. Young people looking for easy money and who believe that they can take advantage of juvenile law are particularly vulnerable to recruitment. Looking to escape difficulties in life is also a common reason that people end up trapped in “yami baito” jobs. Those caught can face major legal and social penalties, including ostracism from local communities. Recruitment adverts for “yami baito” typically do not overtly ask the applicant to undertake illegal actions.
Queensland police are seeking a man who has tried to buy at least 10 businesses south of Brisbane, claiming he had a machine capable of printing money. The man, who has employed the same modus operandi on each occasion, reportedly produced two bundles of $100,000 and invited business owners to supply a further $50,000 to the machine, said to be a black wooden box that hums when it is active. When the money failed to duplicate, the man left, sometimes taking cash from safes left with him until he returned with the counterfeit bills.
British novelist Salman Rushdie has made his first in-person public appearance since he was severely injured in August 2020 after being stabbed repeatedly by a young man who had been carrying a knife. Rushdie made the visit for the annual PEN America gala, a literary and free expression organisation that he formerly served as president. Iranian dissident Narges Mohammadi and the founder of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, were among others scheduled to be honoured at the event. Rushdie was said to be emotional upon taking the podium to make remarks during the gala.
A gas station clerk who locked a door during a dispute over a small purchase was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the uproar led to the fatal shooting of another man. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy filed the charge against Al-Hassan Aiyash, 22, of Hamtramck, in connection with the fatal May 6 shooting of Gregory Kelly, 37, of Detroit, who also was inside the gas station. Aiyash pushed a security button to unlock the door, but didn’t tell the men seconds before the shooting began.
Police in Western Australia arrested two men and seized £14m ($18m) of methamphetamine from a property in Ballajura. Although delivery driver Christopher Mark Mitchell was arrested along with ex-bikie Mohammed Charif Oueida, police claimed the latter was the ringleader of the suspected drug trafficking ring they were investigating. Ballajura was the first location searched. The subsequent raids also found cash and other drugs. Assistant Police Commissioner Tony Longhorn announced investigations were continuing to discover what further links may exist and who is sending drugs to the western state.
London’s Specialist Crime Command, responsible for tackling armed robbery, drugs, firearms and homicide, is struggling to fill over 300 vacancies in the face of competition from private sector employers offering better pay and benefits. Financial crime is reported to be the most problematic area, with the unit struggling to recruit and retain specialist analysts and investigators. A report from the His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services warned that the shortfall was impacting the Met’s ability to deal with organised crime.
Stephanie Louise Bennett, who stole the identity of a pilot killed in a helicopter crash in a bid to dodge a traffic ticket, has had her fine increased in court. Bennett pleaded guilty to fraud by dishonestly inducing a person to act along with obtaining or dealing with another’s identity to commit an indictable offence. The mother of two had been caught using her mobile phone while driving and she could not afford the $1,078 fine she faced and the four demerit points, which would leave her without a licence. Bennett scoured obituaries to find details to use to pay the fine and after several failed attempts, she chose the identity of Ashley Jenkinson, who was killed in a helicopter collision on 2 January.
Australian man Tyson Michael Denny has been sentenced to nine years in jail for killing John Peters in 2021 while driving an unregistered off-road motorbike at reckless speed on a footpath. Denny appeared in the Perth Supreme Court on Friday and was found guilty of manslaughter, after arguing that the charge should be downgraded to dangerous driving causing death. It was estimated that he was driving at speeds between 80 and 100 kilometres per hour on the path. The collision fractured Peters’ spine and pelvis, lacerated his spleen and caused him severe brain bleeding, causing him to die 11 days later in hospital.
Policymakers pushing for gun control in response to violent crime are failing to understand the issue, according to gun policy analyst Amy Swearer. The majority of gun crime is perpetrated by a small number of repeat offenders who are already prohibited from possessing weapons, Swearer argues. Moreover, lawful gun owners are not responsible for criminal gun violence and rather act as a deterrent to it, with Americans using their guns defensively up to 1.6 million times each year. Policymakers would be better served by focusing on strategies to prosecute repeat offenders, provide access to mental health treatment, and improve policing, Swearer concludes.
Timothy Schofield, brother of the TV presenter Phillip Schofield, has been jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of a number of child sex offences, including engaging in sexual activity with a child. Schofield, who worked as a civilian police worker in Bristol, was suspended from his job following his arrest. During his trial, jurors were told that he had told Phillip Schofield that he had watched pornography with the complainant, but this had not been reported to the police. Schofield was convicted of all 11 charges by a majority of 10-2.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has been accused of making dubious promises and claims, including that a Poilievre government would guarantee that certain people will be denied bail. The move, which required the domestic abrogation of Charter rights, is unconstitutional and would be legally illiterate and unconstitutional, according to Andrew Phillips, a columnist writing for the Toronto Star. Poilievre has also said that the Canadian government's policy permitting safer consumption sites and enhancing opioid access to addicts was killing people, despite previous studies suggesting policies had saved thousands of lives.
Jade Jagger and her boyfriend, Anthony Hinkson, have been convicted of charges related to resisting arrest, wounding and assault, following an altercation with police in Ibiza. Hinkson was given a four-month sentence for assault, but as sentences of less than two years are normally suspended in Spain for first-time offenders, is not expected to serve time. Jagger was fined about £1,250 for a crime of serious resistance and a minor crime of wounding; she must also compensate ￡800 to her victim.
Two parents who caused the death of their 16-year-old daughter with prolonged neglect have had their prison sentences upped to eight years and 10 years by the UK Court of Appeal over the “unimaginable squalor” in which the teenager lived. Kaylea Titford died from inflammation and infection from ulceration in October 2020, weighing more than 22 stone at that point. Alun Titford was jailed for seven years and six months, while Sarah Lloyd-Jones was imprisoned for six years.
Private prosecutions have become a burgeoning industry in England and Wales, filling a gap left by a retreating state. While once little-known, the concept of private prosecutions was given a significant boost in 1985 with the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service. Today, people and companies can bring private prosecutions for offences including shoplifting and counterfeiting, and the government will pay at least some of the expenses afterwards. Private prosecutions do have critics, however, who say that most shoplifters are drug addicts and need help that will deal with the root cause of their behaviour.
David McKelvey, a retired police officer and CEO of TM Eye, is enjoying his second career in law enforcement, this time in private practice. McKelvey’s company, which initially specialised in corporate investigations, now prosecutes counterfeit cases for big brands, and focuses heavily on private prosecutions for prolific crimes. The company’s clients have included Apple, Louis Vuitton and Fortnum & Mason, with its targets ranging from organised crime operatives to young women on benefits hawking fake designer jewellery and tracksuits on Facebook.
TM Eye is at the forefront of a growing wave of private prosecutions in England and Wales. The company’s move into prosecuting counterfeit cases came after the authorities became less interested in the types of crime uncovered by McKelvey’s investigations. At the same time, austerity measures in the UK have meant that the wheels of justice have ground almost to a halt for a broad swathe of crimes, allowing people with money to buy their day in court.
