Invasion of the pickpockets

Britain is in the grip of a pickpocketing epidemic as Eastern European gangs descend on London ahead of the Olympic Games.

A surge in sneak street thefts means more than 1,700 people fall victim every day – an increase of nearly a fifth in only two years, according to official crime  figures released yesterday.

At the same time, police warned that professional gangs from Romania, Lithuania and even South America who operate in capitals across Europe are heading to Britain, intent on cashing in on unwitting tourists at London 2012.

How they do it: A member of the pickpocket gang approaches a BBC reporter investigating the rise in thefts ahead of the Olympics

Keeping him occupied: The man speaks to the victim on the pretense of needing directions while another gang member approaches from behind

A BBC investigation exposed the tactics used by Romanian thieves, who were previously operating in Barcelona, to dupe their victims.

The criminals boasted of their ‘one-second’ theft techniques which leave targets unaware that anything has happened until  it is too late. They can make £4,000 a week taking wallets, smartphones and laptop bags. The goods are then shipped back to Romania and sold on the black market.

 Scotland Yard has made more than 80 arrests already and warned thieves the capital will be a ‘hostile environment’ in the coming weeks.

The Met has even drafted in a team of Romanian police officers to deal with the problem and patrol in the West End of London and Westminster during the Games. They will not have arrest powers.

Distracted: An accomplice (left) then plays drunk so he can get close enough to the target to strike

 

Sleight of hand: The 'drunk' man jostles around with the BBC reporter, making it harder for him to notice what is going on

 

 

Rich pickings: The sneering thief walks away with the wallet from the unsuspecting victim

Teamwork: The thief quickly hands the wallet to another member of the gang, who spirits it away

 

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘These Romanian officers will prove to be a huge asset in cracking down on certain criminal networks who are targeting tourists in central London.’

Official statistics released yesterday showed pickpocketing thefts rose 17 per cent in the past two years.

In 2011/12, a total of 625,000 people fell victim, the Crime Survey of England and Wales showed.

That is an increase of more than 102,000 since 2009/10.

The vast majority of the total are classified as ‘stealth thefts’, but in 83,000 cases the victims’ possessions were ‘snatched’.

A well-known Texas doctor is being held on first-degree murder charges for allegedly masterminding a love triangle murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the shooting death of another doctor.

 

Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon, 48, allegedly paid for the murder with three silver bars worth about $9,000.

Dixon is a plastic surgeon based in Amarillo, Texas, familiar to many in the area from his billboards, advertisements and media appearances.

He is charged with hiring David Shepard, 51, to kill Dr. Joseph Sonnier of Lubbock because the rival doctor was dating his ex-girlfriend.

"I cannot recall a homicide case this unique in nature where you have a high-profile doctor hiring someone to kill someone else, especially another high-profile doctor," Lubbock police Capt. Jon Caspell told ABCNews.com.

On July 11, Lubbock cops answered a call regarding a deceased person. When they arrived at Sonnier's house, they found him shot and stabbed, according to police. A window to his house was broken.

Later that day, police interviewed Sonnier's girlfriend and she said that her ex-boyfriend, Dixon, "insisted on still seeing her, even though she was dating Dr. Sonnier," according to a police report.

Police established a connection between Dixon and Shepard when a witness said the two had met the day before Sonnier's body was discovered.

Detectives were then notified that Shepard had sold a 100 ounce bar of silver for $2,750 at an Amarillo pawn shop on June 15, but they weren't yet able to put all the pieces together.

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Their break came when they received a tip from Shepard's roommate, who had known Shepard for over 30 years. The roommate told detectives that Shepard was in business with Dixon and that Shepard had tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists on July 13, two days after Sonnier was found dead, according to a police report.

After the suicide attempt, Shepard told the roommate that he had been watching Sonnier for weeks, that he had been in the doctor's backyard and that he texted Dixon while watching Sonnier.

"David Shepard stated that he shot Dr. Sonnier several times after coming in through a window. David Shepard described what was used to muffle the sound of the gunshots," the police report says. "What David Shepard described was consistent with what was found at the crime scene. This information was not given to the public."

Shepard told his roommate that he had killed Sonnier "due to some triangle as there was a girlfriend that Dr. Sonnier and Michael Thomas Dixon had in common," according to the report.

Dixon paid Shepard for the murder with three silver bars, worth about $3,000 a piece, police said. Investigators believe the bar Shepard had sold at the pawn shop in June was an advance payment for the killing.

The roommate also told police that Shepard had tried to commit suicide a second time and that it was Dixon who treated the cuts.

"Michael Thomas Dixon also told David Shepard to calm down," the police report says. "Michael Thomas Dixon suggested that David Shepard leave for a couple of weeks."

Dixon and Shepard have both been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, but Caspell said the charges could eventually be upgraded to capital murder charges.

"We've never come across anything like this," Caspell said. "Regardless of who they are, we're going to have to handle it like any other homicide case."

Both men are being held on $10 million bonds. Neither man has entered a plea yet and court records do not list lawyers for the suspects.

Authorities have not released the girlfriend's name, but say she has been interviewed by police and is fully cooperating with the investigation.

"She's been cooperative. Obviously, she's been somewhat victimized in all of this," Caspell said. "We do not suspect her in any way, shape or form."

Caspell noted incredulously that despite the extreme circumstances, the motive for the murder is disconcertingly simple.

"It simply just boils down to a dispute over a girl," he said.

Colorado murder suspect attempts to steal plane, kills self

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Brian Hedglin, who was wanted in connection with a stabbing murder in Colorado Springs, apparently stole a a plane and then shot himself while on board in St. George, police said. (Colorado Springs Police Department)

(CBS/AP) SALT LAKE CITY - A SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in connected with a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, police confirmed Tuesday.

 

Brian Hedglin, 40, scaled a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet while the airport was closed, St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said.

Mortenson said the man used a rug to scale the airport's security fence in the middle of the night, drove the plane past a terminal building, clipping the wing, then crashed into cars in an airport parking lot. The plane never left the ground. Skywest officials said the man was on administrative leave at the time and they had deactivated his access cards on Friday.

 

A police officer making rounds found the plane idling, boarded it and found Hedglin dead with a gunshot wound to his head, Mortenson said.

 

Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday with multiple stab wounds by police doing a welfare check at Hedglin's Cheyenne Villas Point home at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide.

 

CBS affiliate KKTV obtained court documents that said Hedglin dated Cornejo for four years and was arrested in March after a heated argument. He was free on $10,000 bond when Cornejo was found dead.

"It was quite the crime scene, from what I understand," CSPD spokesperson Barbara Miller told KKTV Friday, earlier in the investigation.

Hans Kristian Rausing, one of the heirs to the multibillion-pound Tetra Pak packaging dynasty, has been charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of the body of his wife

Hans Rausing with his wife Eva at a charity fundraiser in June. Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images

Hans Kristian Rausing, one of the heirs to the multibillion-pound Tetra Pak packaging dynasty, has been charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of the body of his wife, Eva.

Her remains were discovered in a bedroom at the couple's Chelsea home after her husband was stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Monday last week.

Rausing, 49, heir to a £5.4bn fortune from his Swedish father's business, will appear at West London magistrates court on Wednesday.

The family of his American wife meanwhile paid tribute to Mrs Rausing, whose death is being treated by police as unexplained, and said that she had returned to London to try to persuade her husband to join her for drug treatment in the US.

Her father, the former Pepsi executive Tom Kemeny, said on Tuesday that helping others was a "defining endeavour" in her life, while her family also announced in a joint statement that they would launch a foundation to help drug addicts.

"Eva and Hans Kristian adored each other and their four beautiful children. When not in London they would have family holidays with their cousins and extended family, without any glitz or glamour," he said.

"Eva and Hans Kristian were a devoted and loving couple for the 21 years they spent together. They benefited thousands of lives through their personal involvement and philanthropic activities. They bravely battled their demons and supported each other and Eva will be a devastating loss to our beloved 'son' Hans Kristian, whom we love unconditionally with all our hearts."

He also said: "At the time of her death her overriding concern was for the safety of her beloved husband, for whom she interrupted her own treatment to return to London in an attempt to take him back with her to California, but tragically to no avail."

The Kemeny family said in its joint statement: "Eva would have wanted the memory of her life to be used to benefit others facing similar addiction challenges in their lives. The family hopes this tribute will be used to draw attention to the tragedy of drug addiction and to generate awareness and financial support for this cause in the future. In due course they will launch a foundation."

The couple, who have four teenage children, met in the 1980s when they were both being treated at a US drug rehabilitation centre, but have struggled for many years with addiction to hard drugs, despite being prominent benefactors of a number of anti-drugs charities.

They narrowly escaped prison in 2008 after heroin and £2,000 worth of crack cocaine were found at their home. Mrs Rausing had been arrested after trying to carry several wraps of cocaine into a reception at the American embassy in Grosvenor Square. As part of their caution, they were required to attend a four-month drugs rehabilitation programme.

A postmortem last week failed to establish a formal cause of Eva Rausing's death. An inquest into her death opened at Westminster coroner's court on Friday.

Nicolas Sarkozy's home raided by French police

French police have raided the home and offices of the former president Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal campaign-financing by France's wealthiest woman. Police searched the mansion rented by Carla Bruni in a chic gated community in the west of Paris early on Tuesday morning. She and Sarkozy have lived there since their marriage, in 2008. Detectives also searched the office of the legal firm where Sarkozy is a partner and the office he moved into after losing the presidential election to the Socialist François Hollande in May. The couple were not present as they had left for a holiday in Quebec on Monday, Sarkozy's lawyer said. As president, Sarkozy was protected by judicial immunity but this expired on 16 June. A judge in Bordeaux is investigating whether brown envelopes of illegal cash were given to Sarkozy's rightwing UMP party by France's wealthiest woman, the frail and ageing L'Oreal heir, Liliane Bettencourt, during the election campaign in 2007. The investigating magistrate is trying to establish whether Sarkozy's campaign may have received €800,000 (£640,000) in illegal funding, and whether transfers from Swiss accounts may have been handed over to Sarkozy's campaign treasurer or even to Sarkozy himself. In February, Eric Woerth, the former budget minister and treasurer of Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, was placed under judicial investigation over cash he was alleged to have received from Bettencourt to fund the 2007 campaign. Sarkozy has denied any links to the scandal. Magistrates working on the cases have so far kept silent over whether they would call Sarkozy to testify. The investigation is part of the wider Bettencourt saga, which has gripped France for years with plot twists including a disgruntled butler who hid a tape recorder in the drawing room and, crucially, whether security services at the head of the French state may have spied on journalists to hush it all up. Sarkozy could also become a focus of a separate investigation into whether or not there was a shady cabinet noir at the highest reaches of the French government, which used the secret services to spy on journalists at Le Monde to uncover their sources for stories about the Bettencourt affair. A security chief and Sarkozy ally has been placed under investigation in the alleged political spying scandal. Sarkozy has denied any involvement.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigns

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect. The move comes less than a week after the bank was fined a record amount for trying to manipulate inter-bank lending rates. Mr Diamond said he was stepping down because the external pressure on the bank risked "damaging the franchise". Chairman Marcus Agius, who said on Monday he was stepping down, will take over the running of Barclays until a replacement is found. "I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth," Mr Diamond said in a statement. He will still appear before MPs on the Treasury Committee to answer questions about the Libor affair on Wednesday. "I look forward to fulfilling my obligation to contribute to the Treasury Committee's enquiries related to the settlements that Barclays announced last week without my leadership in question," Mr Diamond said. Last week, regulators in the US and UK fined Barclays £290m ($450m) for attempting to rig Libor and Euribor, the interest rates at which banks lend to each other, which underpin trillions of pounds worth of financial transactions. Staff did this over a number of years, trying to raise them for profit and then, during the financial crisis, lowering them to hide the level to which Barclays was under financial stress. Prime Minister David Cameron has described the rigging of Libor rates as "a scandal". The Serious Fraud Office is also considering whether to bring criminal charges.

The number of Britons arrested overseas is on the rise, official figures have shown.

 The Foreign Office (FO) handled 6,015 arrest cases involving British nationals abroad between April 2011 and March 2012. This was 6% more than in the previous 12 months and included a 2% rise in drug arrests. The figures, which include holidaymakers and Britons resident overseas, showed the highest number of arrests and detentions was in Spain (1,909) followed by the USA (1,305). Spanish arrests rose 9% in 2011/12, while the United States was up 3%. The most arrests of Britons for drugs was in the US (147), followed by Spain (141). The highest percentage of arrests for drugs in 2011/12 was in Peru where there were only 17 arrests in total, although 15 were for drugs. The FO said anecdotal evidence from embassies and consulates overseas suggested many incidents were alcohol-fuelled, particularly in popular holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands, mainland Spain, the Balearics (which include Majorca and Ibiza), Malta and Cyprus. Consular Affairs Minister Jeremy Browne said: "It is important that people understand that taking risks abroad can land them on the wrong side of the law. "The punishments can be very severe, with tougher prison conditions than in the UK. While we will work hard to try and ensure the safety of British nationals abroad, we cannot interfere in another country's legal system. "We find that many people are shocked to discover that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cannot get them out of jail. We always provide consular support to British nationals in difficulty overseas. However, having a British passport does not make you immune to foreign laws and will not get you special treatment in prison."