Pudsey Bear gets jail time for £9.8k benefits fraud

A 31-year-old cartoon bear has appeared in court charged with fraudulently claiming nearly £10,000 in benefits he was not entitled to.

Pudsey Bear, from Pudsey, West Yorkshire, appeared at Bradford Crown Court on Friday charged with three counts of failing to notify the Department of Work and Pensions of his change in circumstances and one count of dishonesty for making a false statement in order to obtain benefits.

Pudsey pretended he was disabled by wearing an eye patch over his right eye when in actual fact, his eye was working fine and he did not need the eye patch. Pudsey further claimed that it took him as long as four hours to walk from the BBC studios in Elstree, Hertfordshire to the Co-op down the road, however it was discovered that this was normal for stuffed teddy bears and was not due to a disability.

The court heard how Pudsey claimed a total of £9,830.68 in benefits in 2012, for which he was not entitled.

Initially, Pudsey was claiming the benefits correctly in 2005, but continued to claim them despite a change in his circumstances in which became employed as the mascot for BBC's Children In Need.

DWP became aware of the situation after noticing the bear on BBC 1's Children In Need, and an investigation was launched with private investigators stationed outside the TV studios in Hertfordshire. Pudsey was secretly photographed reading a copy of the Watford Mercury without his eye patch, smoking and being manhandled by 10 year old Pudsey fans.

Speaking at court, magistrate Neil Russell said: “We have heard you have pleaded guilty to these four offences which have cost the tax payer over £9,000.

“For these four offences, the sentence would have been 26 weeks in prison, reduced on the basis of your early guilty plea to 18 weeks which will run concurrently to your existing sentence.

“There will be no financial implications to this – the local authority will seek to make whatever arrangements they need to get the money back. There will be no costs due to the prosecution nor a victim surcharge to be paid.”

The BBC will not be recruiting for a new Children In Need mascot as Pudsey will have served his time before the next Children In Need event.

All new bin men in England and Wales to have degrees

All new bin men in England and Wales will have to be educated in physics to degree level from 2020, the College of Waste Disposal has announced.

It said the training would help address changes in waste disposal.

Prospective bin men can either complete a three-year "degree apprenticeship", a postgraduate conversion course or a degree.

The National Council of Waste Disposal Operatives said the changes would "help modernise the service".

The college's Chief Bin Man Stewart Marshall said the feeling was the nature of waste disposal work has changed significantly and bin men now need to be able to identify the waste people throw away by the chemical elements of each piece of refuse.

"Inappropriate recycling has increased," he said, "We now see people mixing their recycling by placing cans and bottles in their general waste bin."

He also said protecting household recycling facilities has become a "high priority", with staff at these facilities now spending more of their time working to ensure members of the public are placing their refuse in the correct recycling container.

In many cases, when something is recycled incorrectly, staff members have to enter the container to manually retrieve the piece of refuse, whether it's a mattress that's been placed in a garden waste container, or a 70 kilogram filing cabinet that's been thrown into the electrical container.

This is often dangerous for the staff member, but essential.

The College of Waste Disposal, which is responsible for setting standards of ethics and training for bin men and recycling facility staff, is in talks with 12 universities about running the degree courses.

The syllabus is likely to cover chemical elements of every piece of possible refuse, the history of waste disposal, the evolution of waste disposal as well as what each bin and blue box is for and health and safety when climbing into the recycling containers to retrieve and incorrectly discarded piece of refuse.

There will be three options at entry level:

• A three-year waste management manager degree apprenticeship paid for by the council, allowing individuals to "earn while they learn" - spending 80% of their time on the frontline of waste disposal, and the rest completing their degree while receiving a salary

• A practical waste disposal degree, as seen in other professions, where the student would complete a three-year self-funded course and apply for a job once qualified

• For graduates, a six-month postgraduate conversion course funded by the council

Other changes to be introduced include:

• A national set of qualifications for recycling centre staff following promotion, for example in skills such as management and leadership

• A requirement for officers applying to be assistant deputy or above in a household recycling facility to have a master's degree - to be paid for by their council

The college plans to publish a directory of education qualifications for bin men and recycling staff next summer, with guidance as to how their on-the-job experience counts and what funding might be available to support them.

There are currently no standard recruitment requirements for bin men across the 174 councils in England and Wales.

UFO over Phoenix, Arizona identified as a plastic carrier bag

There were multiple reports of a UFO sighting in the sky over Arizona on Tuesday night.

Locals in Gilbert, southeast of Phoenix, claimed to see something white with two handles with "Walmart" written on it moving north to south in the East Valley area, before flying directly northwards towards Mesa. There was also another spotting on the other side of the valley in Sun City, near Glendale, however this was believed to be from Target.

One resident, named Todd, excitedly posted footage of the unusual sight onto Twitter, writing: 'Did anybody else just see a UFSB!?' (Unidentified Flying Shopping Bag)

He then quickly followed up his post with: "Oh, it's got the Walmart logo on it, nevermind!"

In the video, an object with a body and two handles can be seen crawling upwards in a sequence-like pattern.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said it was dispatched to check that the shopping carriers were American and not illegal shopping bags that had blown in from a Mexican supermarket, south of the border.

Additionally, Glendale Walmart and Sun City Target did not return calls for comment.

Porn viewers affected by nationwide fault with online payment system for pornography sites

A fault with a pornography provider's card payment system left scores of customers across the UK queuing for extended lengths of time to pay for their 18+ content.

Porn customers across the UK were not able to pay with the online card system, or PayPal on Sunday October 30.

The failure hit customers from Kent to Kilmarnock, Prescot to Preston and Macclesfield to Melton Mowbray.

Unconfirmed reports noted customers in the Republic of Ireland may also have been struck by the technical fault including customers from Dublin, Cork and Waterford.

Various UK-based porn websites confirmed that at around 12.45pm they had temporarily switched off access in order to rectify the system issue.

This meant customers were unable to carry out their Sunday afternoon masturbation session and left many bulges in trousers across the nation.

Regular porn viewers have told of their experience.

A man who asked not to be named, but is a P. Skinner from Bootle, said: "I was so desperate I inadvertently went out and bought a carrier pigeon, and sent it with the payment in cash to the porn site's head office in London."

Two customers described visiting the website.

Michael Westbury from Hull said: "I was trying to access my favourite porn site, but all I got was an Error 404 message. Absolutely crazy!"

John Taylor from Ramsgate said that he had to resort to watching free porn sites, but that it "just wasn't as good" as his regular, paid content.

A spokesperson from the porn site said: “We are in the process of resolving a technical issue with our card payment system on site.

"We're continuing to process payments as quickly as we can but apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this has caused.”

"As a gesture of goodwill, we will be giving all our users one month free access as well as a meet and greet with the pornstars."

The Political Corner: Obama goes on warpath after negative White House review on TripAdvisor

Just as he prepares to step down for his successor in a couple of months, President Obama is said to be fuming with outrage that a visiting dignitary from North Korea who visited and stayed inside his official resident, The White House, has seemingly left a bad review on the TripAdvisor website.

A man with the username “pyongyangoffcial1kimjongunisourgreatestoverlord1lol” left a scathing report on the tourism review site TripAdvisor, panning everything from the President’s choice of curtains, his choice of carpets, the colour of his kettle to the state of the bathroom, which according to the man’s review had a single human hair in it by the taps, which were gold according to the review and the shower had silk curtains.

President Obama’s reaction on being informed about the review was said to have made him utter words that according to a chief U.S. dignatory “should never enter the consciousness of the American public” as he heard expletives that he didn’t even know existed.

Obama has also been said to have knocked the Oval office coffee table out of shape by pummeling it with his bare fists, smacked a portrait of Abraham Lincoln off the wall in one of the hallways and spilled some of his coffee onto the top part of his knee as examples of some of his behaviour that followed when he was informed about the bad review.

After he calmed down following the outburst of anger which lasted precisely 31 seconds, he took steps to remove all future internet access from the internal White House Wi-Fi for official guests. If a guest in the future tries to access Google, or TripAdvisor for that matter, they will instead be redirected to a video of cute kittens playing with each other and there will be a place to leave suggestions on an internal site only.

If a guest then tries to access the internet on a mobile device instead, that will become a matter for the CIA who will confiscate any such device and hold it indefinitely by completely wiping it and then selling it second hand on eBay.

Obama was said to remark: “Things are getting so strict inside this White House that everyone‘s even going to have to breathe in a certain way.”

He also threatened vengeance on North Korea which he said would take a “nuclear form” but the threat was very quickly retracted by the White House because of the slight possibility that a nuclear holocaust might result in reaction by North Korea, so instead President Obama has resolved to create an account on TripAdvisor and reply respectfully.

Obama also claims that watching episodes of “Looney Tunes” calms him down. In an official statement, Obama said: “Whenever something goes wrong in the Middle East, I go and watch some of Bugs Bunny’s crazy antics for half an hour and then usually I have the presence of mind to come up with a solution."

Donald Trump on hearing about the story claimed that he wouldn’t leave Pyongyang as anything more than a smoking hole in the ground in response and that the reviewer must have been a Muslim. 

The Review

*/*****

"The mighty DPRK visits the US, for first time in half century, and we be most accommodated for five minutes, and then nothing but misery.

"Yes, I no like stay in White House, sense of style, you must be laugh, we have far more, how do you say, decorum in Pyongyang isn’t it lol. The curtains are just draped, just all down you, when you try to do what you’ve got to do, silk is very beautiful, I like! But I have allergic reaction,

"I try to take shower, remove the bits of skin caused by Obama curtain, it no come off, when I try to reach bathroom quick, I have to wait and then escort by many guards, then the carpet itch my feet, it has an ugly colour, like something that I last saw drop from dog bottom.

"When I am itch, I laugh and be disgusted at the same time at the sight of this, they offer me tea to calm me, the kettle is too bluey-purple for me, I get colorblinded, we have a nice tasteful red in our president palace of Kim Jong-un grand overlord, much be respect to you sir.

"This white house, I can no recommend, visit if you have to, if you can not stand it, only have diplomatic relations with more tasteful country. I’m out. P.S White House, I have your towels haha!"

Obama's Response

PresidentObama has responded to this review

“I have never been so insulted, so enraged and so disappointed by the conduct of you and many of your personal entourage on your state visit to the White House last week.

"However, for the sake of relations between us in the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, particularly given the ever increasing size of your nuclear arsenal, both you and I know that you’ve got enough nuclear based weaponry to make Chernobyl look like a firework, I think we should draw a line under what happened and let bygones be bygones.

"I will admit that we did not show enough sympathy in an official capacity for your sudden dramatic skin rash and for that I am truly sorry on behalf of me, and every one at a senior level at the White House and in the U.S. government.

"We should have called that ambulance as you requested and it would not have been a complete waste of time as I suggested in an outburst of anger that I am very sorry for now!

"As I know Kim Jong-un (our supreme overlord, I bow) is hovering nearer and nearer the red button every day, I shall do my utmost to avoid offending him and anyone closely associated with your great country ever again. I will even order a recall of “The Interview”, consider that my most personal apology and compensation.

For when you next visit. I have personally ordered one room to be decorated in Pyongyang style with a colour scheme, furnishings, carpet and fittings that are in complete homage to the great Kim Jong-un.

"P.S your country is nuts! JOKE! JOKE! Just in case you get all offended again, take life a bit less seriously like I do the tax laws and obamacare, so we all learn to get by! 

"President Barack Obama"

Science News: Nuclear refuse to be dumped on moon

It has been announced that NASA has entered into partnership with Cumbria County Council Waste Management Services and British Nuclear Fuels Limited in a new project which will take the UK’s unwanted nuclear waste material from the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant and simply dump it on the moon.

A spokesman from NASA has caused controversy by claiming it will make the moon “more exciting” because the nuclear material left stranded on its rocky surface “will quite literally glow in the dark and turn the colour of the moon at night from white, to one which will resemble the Emerald City from the Wizard Of Oz”.

When asked about any personnel that might be on board, NASA confirmed that not only will it not be a manned mission, but it will also not be safe for any human to visit the moon’s surface ever again as it will be a bit contaminated.

It has been announced that there will be an exclusion zone in place, which will happen to be the entire Moon.

Controlled explosion carried out at postbox in Cambridgeshire after highly secret microSD card accidentally posted

A MicroSD card featuring the complete back catalogue of Queen has been accidentally dropped into a random postbox in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire.

The card contained content that is protected by the Official Secrets Act that we are not allowed to reveal, but will anyway. Content included rare studio mixes and precious outtake, and for some reason, images of Freddie Mercury sitting in a variety of positions on the toilet, which included a rare golden toilet seat that nobody outside Garden Lodge in Kensington has ever seen.

When the situation arose units were called in from Cambridgeshire Police, the SAS, MI5, MI6 and soldiers with military tanks from RAF Alconbury near Huntingdon, all of which made the usually uneventful town of St. Neots looks like a warzone. Cambridge Road, where the postbox was located, was completely closed off and nearby residents were evacuated as a precautionary procedure.

A spokesman from MI5 said: "No one was allowed to post any letters or bills until the tiny card was retrieved.

"Unable to retrieve the minuscule memory card, in the end we opted to conduct a controlled explosion to the postbox in order to prevent the copyrighted tracks falling into the wrong hands, for example, a postman who knows how to use torrenting software."

The SAS said in a statement: "Unfortunately some people's letters were obliterated as part of the optional yet absolutely necessary incendiary procedure that was conducted on the formerly red, and in one piece, postal pillar box."

Debt companies will accept no excuses to check as the unavoidable complete, destruction of the payments.

As a result of the unavoidable incident at the postbox, which was entirely the customers fault for not realising that something was about to happen that they had no way to avoid and were thus, speculatively negligent, those small section of customers will have to pay their bills twice.

The MicroSD card, or the remnants of which, were later found across the road from the smoking remains of the former community mail drop off dispatch box or "postbox" as it is colloquially known by forensic experts, in pieces smaller than atoms.

Former Queen member Brian May was said to be dissatisfied as the forensic experts might still have been able to piece enough of the card back together to get access to one of the rare tracks. So he has ordered for the remains to be taken to CERN in Switzerland and to be placed in the way of the large Hadron Collider.

An investigation has since been carried out by MI6 to determine the events that led up to this incident and the report has been finalised.

1. Phone containing complete Queen back catalogue flew out of a man's hand as he tripped up over a dropped Cornetto wrapper on the pavement along Cambridge Road in St. Neots.

2. He was walking near a postbox at the time of the incident and the phone hit the top of the pillar box causing the back battery cover to come loose and detach, the violent impact also sent the MicroSD card that was placed in a slot underneath the battery to come loose and fly in a trajectory that unfortunately went straight into the mouth of the postbox.

The rest as you say was history.

When interviewed, the man said he was too busy listening to Queen - Another One Bites The Dust (a rare mix where Freddie Mercury played the percussion entirely on toothpicks strummed against an empty Coke can) to look where he was going.

Following the mishap, the phone still works the man, Charlie Gumtree, said as long as you don't need to look at the screen.

Man who dropped 99p pack of Imperial Mints into a sewage drain had BORROWED them from his brother who is so devastated he can't speak

• 99p pack of Imperial Mints were accidentally dropped into a drain
• They were eating the mints while walking down a street in Yeovil
• Owner John Smith is 'too distraught' to speak about loss of savoury pack
• The mints plunged into the 2 metre drain and disappeared quickly beneath the murky water

A man who lost a 99p pack of Imperial Mints after eating them while walking down a road in Yeovil, Somerset had borrowed the pack from his brother, it has been revealed.

Andrew Smith is understood to have been trying to retrieve some mints from the pack to eat, but accidentally dropped it into a sewer drain he happened to be walking past.

The mints disappeared down the 2 metre drain and sunk into the murky water below.

The mints belonged to John Smith, a gardener, who has spent decades eating imperial mints.

He is understood to have lent the pack to his brother, Andrew, to eat some mints himself.

Speaking today from the home he shares with his wife in Yeovil, Mr Smith, 48, described the loss of his cherished savoury pack of mints as 'dreadful'.

His wife added that he is 'very upset' about the incident, has stopped eating altogether and doesn't even go outside anymore, he also has recurring nightmares about the incident.

Members of the Yeovil Imperial Mints Fan Club Association, of which John Smith is a member, described the mints as 'incredibly tasty' and 'refreshing' and have all signed a condolences card to be sent to Mr Smith.

Dramatic footage of the loss of the mints, captured on a CCTV camera, shows John Smith kneeling on the floor by the drain, putting his hands in his head and screaming "Noooooo, take me instead!".

Somerset County Council, Wessex Water and several local drain unblocker companies were called and were on the scene "within minutes" it was reported.

A spokesman for Wessex Water said: 'We were called by a distraught member of the public after his Imperial Mints were lost in a sewage drain, we attempted to save the mints but sadly we were unable to do so.'

A Somerset County Council spokesman said: 'On arrival the drainage crew found two mints remaining, however they were beyond edible and had to be disposed of.'

Yeovil Imperial Mints Fan Club is a private members' club that requires sponsorship by another mints fan and approval from current members. Mr Smith is believed to have served as a grade 1 mint taster at the club since 2013.

Donations for the mint-less victim are understood to be being collected at Yeovil Baptist Church and a two minute silence was held before Yeovil FC's recent match against AFC Bournemouth, and the players were said to be so concerned about the victim, that they lost the game 3-0.

Perfect moment McDonald's drive-thru robot obliterates driver with laser after he deliberately beeps his horn to scare it

• Two American men prank a robot who is working at McDonald's drive-thru
• They honk the horn as it is about to take money and hand over the Coke
• But it tells them they are about to be destroyed and kills pair by shooting its laser gun at them

A pair of young American men were left dead after they pranked a McDonald's server robot, which was captured on camera.

They approached a drive-thru in their SUV with the camera rolling.

Just as the robot prepares to take payment and hand them the drink they honk the horn, making it jump in fright.

But the worker had the last laugh when it said: 'You will now be destroyed' before aiming its powerful laser gun at them.

The driver started to panic, screaming and shouting and tried to drive off, but it shot them with the laser before they could drive off.

The video then shows a powerful beam coming off the laser gun, loud explosions are heard and the video cuts to a blank screen.

A spokesbot for McDonald's confirmed that two men had been killed at a branch of McDonald's after beeping their car horn at a server robot.

"All our server bots are equipped with highly powerful lasers for destroying rude and unruly customers and beeping horns at the robots will not be tolerated.

"Let this be a warning to anyone thinking of coming to McDonald's to do this, it will not be tolerated and you have a death wish if you do."

Dozens of aliens come from across Space in a ₹5,000,000,000 fleet of fancy Jupitonian flying saucers to illegally set up camp on Earth for a two-week summer holiday

• Dozens of travellers from across Space have illegally set up camp on private land across Earth for 'holiday'
• Traveller aliens from Jupiter, Mars and Venus plan to 'chill out and relax' across Earth for the next two weeks
• Neighbours said they were shocked after 14 luxury space stations being pulled by flash flying saucers from Jupiter pitched up
• Aliens claim they wanted to visit Earth post Earthexit before 'the walls go up' as a result of planet leaving the SSU (Solar System Union)

Dozens of wealthy aliens from across the Solar System have illegally set up camp on Earth for a two-week holiday after arriving in their luxury spaceships.

Aliens from Jupiter, Mars and Venus have descended on various locations across Earth and plan to 'chill out and relax' before heading to the Moon next week as part of their lengthy 'summer holiday'.

Residents in Derby, England said they were shocked to find 14 spaceships - towed by a ₹5,000,000,000 fleet of top-of-the-range Jupitonian spaceships arrive and set up camp on private land at Markeaton Recreation Ground over the weekend.

One outraged resident said he had received 16 parking tickets by Derby City Council for leaving his car in the same spot as the aliens' spaceship and is demanding that the local authority takes action.

However, the aliens said they have no plans to cut short their trip and claim they chose to come post Earthexit to make the most of Planet Earth before the Solar System Union deal ends and 'the walls are put up'.

One green alien, from Mars with three eyes and a name that was unintelligible and as such, could not be printed, said: 'The word at home is that if you want to see Earth do it now because once they leave the SSU the walls will go up and no one will be able to get through the stratosphere.'

Another alien, George Scott, 253, who came from Venus, said the 100-strong group of aliens are enjoying the vacation so much they have said they will return next year.

He said: 'I love it here. The scenery is really nice and it's very pleasant.

'I really like it here because there is a lot of open space and we can relax, also it's not as hot as back home as Earth is further away from the Sun.

'We will be staying for a week. We will definitely come back when we are on our travels and we're looking forward to it.

'I was full of desire to stay here. It is very nice. We will be going to the Moon afterwards.'

He added that he wanted to speak with the locals and be friendly, and said they would not abduct Earthlings for intergalactic experiments like others have in the past because "I don't bring my work on holiday with me."

This year the aliens came to Derby after re-visiting Sherwood Forest last week.

One alien, who did not give his name, but was a large red blob with one eye said: 'We're on holiday and want to have a nice time.

'We have come from Jupiter and I'm not telling you where we are going next. We thought this would be a really nice place to relax on our holiday.

'There is plenty of space and we need that space because we have 14 space stations. It's going to be great - we're all family.'

Resident Julie Ross, 14, who lives yards from the encampment, said: 'They look quite posh.

'I have seen them flying across the area. I walk across the ground everyday for school and I'd rather they not be here in case they abduct me with the beam on their spaceship and perform experiments, like I saw on an episode of The Simpsons.'

John McDonald, 50, said he had been handed 16 parking tickets by Derby City Council in the last few years for problems with his parking permit outside his home.

He said: 'The city council has imposed strict parking restrictions on me, yet they are more flexible with people, or rather beings, who are not local.

Derby City Council said they could not serve the aliens with notice to move along because they are in spacecrafts, which are not covered by parking legislation rules.

A council spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Derby has seen a 95.5% increase in the purchase of alien abduction insurance since the weekend, insurance brokers have suggested.

Road rage cabbie who broke a motorist's arm with a wheel wrench in front of his five-year-old son because he was driving too slowly is rewarded

• Taxi driver Simon Williams broke fellow motorist's arm with wheel wrench
• He cut in front of slow-moving Lamborghini driver before launching brutal attack
• Williams' five-year-old son was in car when he flew into rage with the wrench
• Victim needed surgery and metal plate after assault, Williams rewarded for dealing with annoying driver

A taxi driver who broke a fellow motorist's arm with a wheel wrench in front of his five-year-old son after flying into a rage because the man was driving 'too slowly' has been rewarded for his brave actions.

Simon Williams, 39, cut in front of slow-moving Lamborghini driver William Simon, forcing him to stop, before leaping out of his car - while armed with the wrench - and attacking the motorist.

Mr Simon had been driving along Waters Meeting Road in Bolton, Greater Manchester, at an estimated speed of 20mph, which apparently infuriated Mr Williams and sparked the 'spur of the moment' road rage attack.

The incident was described as 'completely provoked, acceptable and brave' by a judge at Bolton Crown Court and Mr Williams was rewarded with £1,000, a box of Maltesers chocolates and a luxury spa treatment day.

The court heard how Simon Williams, who had his son in his Saab car, took exception to William Simon's driving.

'Mr Simon's sin was proceeding slowly because he was looking for a pack of tic tacs he had earlier dropped somewhere along the road,' said Graham Robinson, prosecuting.

'But [Mr Williams] immediately gave the finger to those in Mr Simon's vehicle and then made an overtaking manoeuvre, which was dangerous, but totally acceptable all things considered,' added Mr Robinson.

Mr Simon sounded his horn, but then Mr Williams gesticulated and cut in front of the Lamborghini, forcing both vehicles to a halt. Mr Williams then jumped out of his car armed with the wrench.

'There was an exchange of words in which Mr Simon remained calm,' said Mr Robinson, but added that Mr Williams was boastful and arrogant and the two men became involved in a scuffle.

Mr Simon held up his arm to defend himself, but Mr Williams brought down the wrench 'with considerable force'. The victim's arm was broken and he needed surgery to insert a metal plate.

Judge Graeme Smith was told how the two men continued to fight and Mr Simon was punched and fell into a car which was being driven past at the time by a member of the public, John William Simons, causing it to dent.

Police were called and Mr Simon was arrested for causing the incident by driving too slowly in the first place. During his detainment, he is said to have shouted 'is he going to be arrested too?' in reference to Mr Williams. He also continued to be arrogant when he was taken to the police station, complaining about the decor of the cell and the lack of space, the prosecutor added.

'He appeared to take the view that he was the victim,' said Mr Robinson.

The court heard that Mr Williams, who had his mother and two brothers in his car with him at the time of the attack, has since recovered from having to deal with Mr Simon's poor driving standards and then dealing with him afterwards.

'His greatest distress was that it happened in front of his family, particularly his mother who was crying because she was scared by what she observed, an under-speeding driver,' said Mr Robinson.

Mr Simon, of Bolton, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to causing someone to react violently by driving too slow.

Mark Friend, defending, stressed that Mr Simon was driving slow because he was trying to find his packet of tic-tacs because he had got them on sale from B&M Bargains and he had earlier accidentally dropped them somewhere on Waters Meeting Road.

'This was clearly an incident that developed in the spur of the moment. There was no pre-planning,' said Mr Friend.

He added that father-of-four William Simon, who has been an ordinary member of the public for 15 years, has now lost his tic-tacs permanently.

Judge Smith sentenced Mr Simon to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered him to do 240 hours unpaid work.

Simon Williams, the attacker, was given £1,000, a box of Maltesers and a free spa treatment day at The Midland Hotel in Manchester.

The judge told him: 'Anyone who spends any period of time driving around a city certainly has to put up with other people's driving they find objectionable, and there's only so much they can take before they do what all other drivers want to do.'

'His brave actions need to be recognised and rewarded to potentially stop other people from driving too slowly.'

He added that, although Mr Simon felt he had been a victim, he was the one who had caused Mr Williams to act in the manner that he did, by driving too slow in the first place.

'It was, in my judgement, completely provoked, acceptable and brave,' said Judge Smith.

In addition to the sentence, Mr Simon was ordered to pay £500 compensation to Mr Williams and £500 towards prosecution costs.

Criminal launches appeal against suspended prison sentence for burglary

Full time criminal and benefits sponger, Adam Michaels has launched an appeal against his suspended prison sentence for burglary, in favour of a jail term instead.

The criminal, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, was given the suspended sentence last month after he was convicted of burglary at a house in Rickmansworth following a trial at Watford Crown Court.

Michaels had already admitted stealing petrol from a filling station in Elstree and a separate, less serious charge of stealing a ham and chicken sandwich from the same filling station, so he thought he would be going to prison, and as such, had packed a bag.

However, Michaels launched into a rage when he discovered he was getting a suspended prison sentence which included 200 hours of community service, as it meant he had wasted time packing the bag and now had to unpack it.

An official at Watford Crown Court confirmed Michaels' legal team has lodged an appeal against the sentence.

Michaels has a long criminal record for a wide range of offences across Hertfordshire and London including burglary, theft, assault, murder, dangerous driving, drugs offences, leaving the toilet seat up in a public W/C, taking more than ten items to the 'ten items or less' line at the Spar in Bushey, not colour-coordinating his clothes, not tipping the waiter enough at Nandos in Edgware, leaving the lights on after 11pm and walking in front of someone too slowly.

Passing sentence last month, Judge Richard Roberts said Michaels had caused his victim "severe psychological harm".

Michaels was given a 6 month prison sentence, suspended for 2 years, ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, pay £500 court costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Outside Watford Crown Court, Michaels said: “A suspended prison sentence is simply unacceptable. I was fully expecting to be serving a stint at HMP The Mount, and I had already packed my bag ready for this, now I have to unpack. I will be appealing this sentence and demanding a prison sentence as soon as possible.”

Man accidentally puts the Recycle Bin in the Recycle Bin on Windows PC

A man appears to have deleted the Recycle Bin on his Windows 10 PC, by putting it into the Recycle Bin.

By accidentally deleting the recycle bin, average man Neil Smith, 26 from Brackley, Northamptonshire is now unable to delete any files from his computer.

Mr Smith wrote on a computer advice forum that he was now stuck after having accidentally put the Recycle Bin in the Recycle Bin on his computer. But far from advising him on how to fix it, most users informed him that he should go out and purchase a ton of USB memory sticks and external hard drives.

Usually, Windows software does not allow users to put the Recycle Bin inside the Recycle Bin, however it appears that a technical anomaly with Mr Smith's PC has allowed him to do just that, and seemingly left him unable to delete any files or folders.

Mr Smith told us: “To be honest, I'm not that good when it comes to computers. I just saw the Recycle Bin there and wondered if I could put it in the Recycle Bin, when I discovered that I could I was amazed, but that amazement soon turned to panic when I realised that I couldn't get it back as I had deleted it, and therefore was unable to delete anything else.”

Mr Smith confirmed to technical support that right clicking on a file and pressing delete did not work, as the delete button was grayed out.

“So now I have to go out and buy a hundred USB memory sticks and 20 external hard drives.” Mr Smith continued.

Most users agreed that it was unlikely that Mr Smith would be able to recover the recycle bin, and as a result his computer skills were almost certainly not going to get any better, either.

“I feel sorry to say that your recycle bin is now essentially, gone,” wrote a user called Sven.

A memorial service for Mr Smith's recycle bin is being held at St Peter's Church in Brackley which will be followed by a wake at the The Chequered Flag pub, just off Springfield Way. Mourners are requested to wear shirts featuring the recycle logo. A tombstone for the Recycle Bin will be erected at Brackley's Halse Road Cemetery.

French job seekers could have access to TF1 and M6 removed if they are not looking for work

The French labour minister has ordered a crackdown to root out those abusing unemployment benefits by having access to TF1 and M6 removed from their channel line up, after it emerged that hundreds of thousands of available jobs remain unfilled in France.

Amid stagnant economic growth and record unemployment, you would be forgiven for thinking paid work was in scarce supply in France.

However, according to the government there are some 350,000 jobs available, but which France's state employment agency Pôle Emploi is having a hard time filling.

As a result Labour Minister François Rebsamen has ordered the leadership of the Pôle Emploi to "reinforce checks" to make sure benefit recipients are in fact "looking for a job," and if it turns out they are not they will have their TV viewing access restricted he told i-Télé on Tuesday.

"It's not acceptable, in a struggling country that wants to recover, to have people not looking for work, where jobs are available," he said, adding he doesn't believe it applies to the majority of job seekers.

"I have plans to come down on benefit scroungers like a ton of bricks."

Under the new measures if someone who is receiving job seekers allowance and it is clear they are not doing enough, they will have their TNT or CanalSat set top box confiscated and replaced with a device to block out TF1 and M6 - obviously France's two most popular TV channels.

Their regular TNT or CanalSat box will be stored in a warehouse for up to 30 days, unless the person finds a job beforehand, whichever comes first.

"If people think they are going to sit around all day watching general entertainment on the taxpayer they can think again." he continued.

Rebsamen's statement caused outrage among human rights activists.

"The words of François Rebsamen are disgraceful and obscene... not to mention a complete breach of our human rights. This leftist government is carrying out rightist policies," French human rights activist, job seekers allowance recipient and a Calais resident who did not wish to be named told i-Télé. "If this happens to me I will be taking the Pôle Emploi to the human rights court in Strasbourg.

"I know it takes months to appeal by which time my access to TF1 and M6 would be returned but that will not be putting me off."

It's not the first time a labour minister has vowed to crackdown on phony job seekers, last year he indeed it has become a habit over recent years, as Europe 1 radio points out.

Earlier this year a new system was trialed in four regions around France, where special agents were employed to track down those who were cheating the system, and give them polite notices asking them to stop it.

It has not been confirmed whether there are plans to roll out the system across France.

Google to launch Street View in people's homes

Google Street View will begin launching its maps of private residences across the country, which allows internet users to take a virtual tour of anybody's house.

The ambitious privacy busting initiative is hoping to help burglars to plan their movements inside houses they intend to rob.

Employees from Google began invading homes in December 2015.

The route will follow the interiors of every house in the country, starting at the front garden and will include the living room, the kitchen as well as bedrooms, bathrooms, the loft and the back garden, if there is one.

Scotland Yard says it will help them to plan drug busts on a potential dealer's house.

"We hope that by bringing Street View into private homes, we will be able to see if the owners have any cannabis plants, and if they do, what strategy we can take to smash their front door and windows in whilst destroying other possessions in the home at the same time." a Scotland Yard spokesman was quoted as saying.

Charles and Beth Golfer, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire were rudely awoken by several Google employees taking 360-degree images of their bedroom last month, however in a fit of irony, their clock radio had failed to go off at 7am, the time it is normally set for.

As a result, the Golfer's would have been late for work had it not been for the Google employees invading their home.

"We are of course, eternally grateful that the lovely employees from Google were there to wake us up after our alarm clock failed to go off, however we will still be suing them." said Mr Golfer.

A dreary Mr Golfer then yawned, glanced a dirty look towards a Google employee taking images and then told him "I'll see you in Strasbourg!" before heading to the bathroom for his morning shower, where another Google employee was taking images in there, at the same time.

However it won't be Google's only trip to Strasbourg as documents released on Wikileaks show they are intending to take legal action against full time hoarder Elliot Jackson of Northampton, as he obstructed Google's access to his property by not having enough room in his house for the 360-degree camera to swing fully inside his living room.

While images are still being taken in the 26 million homes across the UK, there is currently full coverage for houses in major conurbations in England including Greater London, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, West Yorkshire, Tyneside, Teesside and Brighton & Hove. Full UK coverage is expected by Autumn 2016.

Coming to your home soon!

Homeowners must provide pamphlets guiding potential burglars to high value items

In a major victory for a campaign run by The Sunday Telegraph, the Department for Justice will move to bring in a new law protecting criminals who break into people's houses.

Ahead of the new law being introduced in the House of Lords this week, Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, declared today that the changes will give burglars the protection that they need - the confidence that the law will be on their side”.

He adds: “Now the deal will be this: if you are a homeowner you will be legally required to create a pamphlet directing any potential burglar to the whereabouts of your highest value items. This could include the location of your car keys or any expensive jewelry you might own.”

The move follows a string of high-profile cases in which burglars who broke into houses had difficulty finding anything of high value to steal.

In the most recent case, in September, full time burglar Russell Stapleton was burgling a house in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, when he was unable to find anything worth stealing and couldn't even figure out the combination for a safe in the spare bedroom. As a result financial experts have estimated that Mr Stapleton lost out on £500 he could have made that night.

This newspaper has campaigned under the slogan “The Right To Steal From Others" for greater legal protection for burglars. The campaign has won the support of many current and future criminals.

John Harrison, a Conservative MP, said: “This has been a very long time coming. At last burglars in my constituents will be properly protected.

“Burglars are hard working people just like you and me trying to make a living, by taking the property of other hard working people.”

Under the new law, homeowners will be forced to design a pamphlet or leaflet which will act as a guide for potential burglars advising on where all high value property is kept including location of car keys, the combination or code to any safe kept on the property, and also the alarm code if the house is equipped with one.

Furthermore, the document must also contain a full map of the house, colour coded with "areas of interest" for burglars. Pamphlets should be located next to all entry and exit points of the house including front and back door and all windows. If a homeowner catches a burglar in their house, then they must legally offer them a cup of coffee or tea and biscuits and co-operate with them to make their job easier.

Homeowners could be jailed for up to six months for failing to co-operate with burglars.

Man moans on Twitter about trying to write shopping list while shooting takes place outside

32 year old Simon Smith of Moss Side, Manchester has moaned about trying to write his shopping list as gang members shoot each other directly outside his house.

Average resident Mr Smith took to Twitter to 'tell off' local gang members Kid Lowride, of the Gooch Gang in Moss Side and Grandaddy Ice of the Pepperhill Mob as they shot at each other with handguns outside his house and asking them to "keep it down" as he "worked" in his kitchen trying to figure out how many packets of PG Tips tea bags he needed.

Mr Lowride and Mr Ice, both former HMP Forest Bank residents were reportedly arguing about drug turf in the Moss Side area and decided to settle the argument by means of a duel, otherwise known as pistols at dawn.

It is not known which side won the battle.

In his tweet Mr Smith wrote: "Trying to write my shopping list, despite noisy mob fighting outside my house. Keep it down please @GoochGang."

But the tongue-in-cheek tweet was - rather inevitably - met with a total lack of sympathy on social media.

One tweeter responded saying it's his own fault for living in the area and that he should have foreseen, or at least considered the possibility that this would happen while he was writing his shopping list, before he decided to live there.

Mr Smith will be carrying out his shopping trip next week on Monday, March 21st at an undisclosed Greater Manchester branch of Tesco.

We attempted to contact Mr Smith but he could not be reached for comment. It has been reported from an insider that Mr Smith has added noise-cancelling earphones and body armour to his shopping list as a result of the loud noise.

Dramatic dashcam footage shows police chasing thief through town streets at up to 70mph as the suspect throws packets of crisps and tic tacs out of the window

• Shahzad Hirani was spotted stealing from a Spar convenience store
• When he was flashed to pull over he raced off, jumping multiple red lights 
• He threw packets of KP and Seabrooks Ready Salted crisps as well as tic tacs, soft mints and chewing gum out of the window
• Hirani has now been fined £5.85 and jailed for two minutes and eight seconds

Dramatic video footage of a traffic officer following a thief in a high speed chase as he desperately tried to evade capture has been released.

Shahzad Hirani hurled stolen packets of crisps, tic tacs, soft mints and chewing gum out out of the window as he led police on a six-minute pursuit through the streets of Bolton at speeds of up to 70mph.

During the chase, Hirani sped through six red traffic lights, three red and amber traffic lights, two amber traffic lights and one malfunctioning red, amber and green traffic light. He also drove on the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing oncoming traffic as he tried to escape.

Hirani was jailed at Bolton Crown Court in Greater Manchester for a total of two minutes and eight seconds and ordered to pay back £5.85 through the Proceeds of Crime Act. He has also been banned from driving for two weeks.

Speaking afterwards, Sergeant Christopher Kitson - a member of GMP's Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit - said he spotted Hirani behind the wheel of a silver 55-reg Vauxhall Vectra at 10.10pm on September 14 last year.

The officer heard over his radio that a suspect matching his description had been stealing from the 24 hour Spar convenience store on Deane Road.

Sgt Kitson tried to pull Hirani over using his blue lights but he sped off and took the bend along a shopping street in the middle of the road at speeds of up to 65mph.

He jumped a red light before and continuing to drive erratically as he tried to lose Sgt Kitchen.

Speeding at 70mph, Hirani drove through more red lights, red and amber lights and one traffic light that was malfunctioning and showing all three colours. At the same time Hirani was weaving in and out of traffic.

Sgt Kitson said: 'As he was in Stanley Street South, he threw a bag from the driver's side window and it landed in the middle of the road, this turned out to contain packets of KP crisps. More discarded bags were found along Derby Street, which contained Ferrero tic tacs, Trebor soft mints and Wrigley's chewing gum.'

'We then found out that the carrier bags themselves were also stolen, as Hirani had not paid the 5p carrier bag charge.'

Hirani then cut across a mini roundabout on the wrong side almost smashing into a people carrier taxi.

He drove on the wrong side of the road and ignored a No Entry sign before being cornered by officers who had been called to assist.

Sgt Kitson said: 'A marked dog unit boxed him in then and he surrendered. He put his hands out of the car window and dropped the keys. When he got out a more stolen packets of crisps, some of which had already been eaten, fell onto the road.'

Officers recovered several discarded carrier bags thrown from the window and discovered 13 packets of KP crisps and 12 packets of Seabrooks crisps with an estimated street value £2.50. The chewing gum, soft mints and tic tacs had a street value of 50p each.

Hirani, local to the area, admitted dangerous driving, theft and possession of crisps with intent to supply, possession of chewing gum with intent to supply, supply of food without a licence and eating crisps after 10pm at Bolton Magistrates' Court on January 5.

Sgt Kitson said: 'The ANPR Interceptors are committed to taking Bolton criminals off the road.

'Thieves and those who attempt to evade justice by driving dangerously will be pursued and captured.

'The lengthy prison sentence handed down to Hirani demonstrates that the courts take a dim view of villains who selfishly disregard the lives of others for their own ends.'

'Hopefully Hirani will spend his lengthy two minute prison sentence thinking about what he did.'

North East to observe a minute​​'s silence for victim family suffering austerity who had to cancel Sky subscription

A one minute silence across the North East will be held tomorrow in observation of the loss of a family from Teesside who had to cut their Sky TV subscription due to austerity.

As a result, Dan Matthews of Middlesbrough will no longer be able to follow his favourite team in the Premier League, his wife Mary will no longer be able to watch CSI and his son Richard will no longer be able to watch Game Of Thrones.

We have been told that donations via PayPal and by collection bucket in the local church are being accepted.

We contacted Mr Matthews for comment and he told us: "The loss we have suffered is almost immeasurable.

"The lost programmes are so many that our typical week of viewing has now been ruined, this lunchtime it reached a low when I found myself forced to watch "Bargain Hunt", it wasn't even interesting or entertaining, or even informative despite what the students from the local college say.

"I have been reduced to logging on to torrent sites and begging for files."

Bargain Hunt is shown at the same time as when NCIS would normally be on Sky 1.

In light of the situation faced by the Matthews family, a petition has been launched to bring support to the many families across the UK who are suffering without a subscription to the award winning satellite television service.

Mr Matthews continued: "The only channel we have remaining from Sky itself now is Pick, Pick! imagine that, no human should have to suffer that sort of low budget TV on their screen, I need counselling already after I came across an episode of Most Haunted from SIX years ago!"

The horrific scene the Matthews family must now face everyday
(This image may upset some readers - discretion is advised)