And continues in 2011.....

Knife crime and muggings rise but police hail stop-and-search

Justin Davenport, Crime Editor - 18 Jan 2011


Knife crime in London rose last year as police tackled stabbings and gangland youth violence, figures revealed today.

The number of knife offences rose by eight per cent, although the total being injured in stabbings fell. Police say the increase may be partly due to a rise in stop-and-search operations against gangs, which caught more people carrying knives.

There was also an increase in muggings, where knives were used to threaten victims. The figures for last year show there were rises in robbery, rapes and serious youth violence. But, at the same time, there were falls in burglary, gun crime and violent offences.

Muggings rose by seven per cent last year to a total of 35,012 - or around 96 robberies a day. There were 647 more cases of rape reported. This follows a shake-up in how the Met tackles sex crimes. Worryingly, cases of serious youth violence rose by 3.1 per cent while there was also an increase in the number of teenage murders.

Police said their efforts to tackle knife crime through initiatives such as Operation Blunt 2 were paying off.

Commander Steve Rodhouse, who is leading the battle against gang violence, said: "Our efforts in proactive operations and stop and searches of young people will mean we are uncovering offences and recording them and that, in part, contributes to some of these rises we see today.

"I would make the point that the number of people who have been injured with a knife has fallen and that is a significant figure. We have taken many, many knives off the street."

The Met statistics show the total number of offences fell last year to 824,601 - more than 8,000 fewer reported crimes than the previous year. There were 3,392 fewer residential burglaries in London and the Met said the number had dropped by 18 per cent in the last decade.

Gun crime was down by 10.4 per cent compared with 2009, or 352 fewer offences. The number of murders also fell to 125, the lowest total since 1978, and seven fewer than in 2009.

There were also falls in violent offences, down five per cent, road deaths, 58 fewer than 2009, homophobic crime, down five per cent, and domestic offences, down five per cent.Police said that vehicle crimes had risen slightly last year against a background of 10 years of falling crime.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: "London now boasts the lowest murder rate since 1978 and our targeted policing operations have led to a huge reduction in gun crime and burglary.

"However, the challenge of tackling violent youth crime remains, and whilst injuries by knives have fallen, there is no room for complacency. Operation Blunt 2 has taken 10,000 knives off our streets."


Addict' officers trapped drug gang

A drugs gang led by a convicted robber which made £100,000 a month was smashed after police mounted a “Wire-style” investigation involving covert surveillance and officers posing as addicts.

The Stick 'Em Up Kids, which controlled the flow of cocaine and heroin in Wandsworth, was run by Musa Mohammed, on licence after being released from a four-year jail term. Mohammed, who goes by the street name Mikey, has 10 previous convictions for charges including armed robbery and drugs offences, and was only released in February last year — two months before the investigation started. His gang is also suspected in connection with a murder of a teenager in 2006.

In a four-month period, five undercover officers made 32 deals. They became so trusted that dealers would contact them to let them know “we've got good stuff”, Kingston crown court heard. When police arrested the gang in August and seized their phones they found that more than 25,000 calls regarding drugs had been made during the time they were under surveillance.

The gang paid £40 a day to runners as young as 15 for their services. A total of 13 youths pleaded guilty to dealing drugs between May and August last year.

Mohammed, 23, was due to be sentenced for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs today.

His gang members were given sentences ranging from five years to 24 months.

It began in 2008......

Court seizes spoils of drug dealer gang chief

Justin Davenport and Ken Hyder
29 May 2008



A 'General' in a London street gang has been stripped of his personal possessions by a court - including a collection of nearly 60 baseball caps and trainers.

Musa Mohammed, 20, was also ordered to hand over a plasma TV and £1,500 bike. His two pitbull terriers were seized and destroyed.

The move is part of a campaign against gang members using laws aimed at confiscating the proceeds of organised crime networks.

Mohammed, a key member of Wandsworth-based gang SUK - Stick Up Kids - was ordered to hand over his possessions after pleading guilty to supplying class-A drugs. Police successfully argued that the drug dealer, who was unemployed and not claiming benefits, had paid for items with profits from drug dealing.

The list of items he was forced to hand over included: 29 pairs of £110 trainers, 29 baseball caps, a laptop computer, a 42in plasma TV, an Xbox, a PlayStation, designer clothes and two bicycles.

Pc Laura Milne, who led the investigation into Mohammed, said police found £21,000 worth of drugs and £7,000 in cash after searching his flat. "The one thing he was really upset about was the loss of his trainers. He told us we could keep the drugs and the money but he wanted his trainers and his property back," she said.

Mohammed, from Southfields, was arrested in January as he drove to Surrey to deliver drugs. He had wraps of heroin and crack cocaine hidden down his trousers. Police described him as a "general" in SUK, which has about 100 members and has been associated with tit-for-tat shootings with rival groups.

Wandsworth detectives began targeting the gang after the murder of 16-year-old Eugene Attram in Mitcham two years ago. So far around 50 members have been arrested and others "disrupted".

Detective Superintendent Guy Ferguson said: "They think they can make money quickly - up to £1,000 a day dealing drugs. But systematically, using confiscation powers, we're taking away their cash and the things they spend it on."

Mohammed, a Somali illegal immigrant, was today beginning a four-year sentence after appearing at Kingston crown court. He tried to challenge the application to seize his property but failed.

Why did no one tell me about this story?

There is a distinct possiblity that nowhere is safe!!

Somaliland sentences German to four years for porn

13 January 2011 Last updated at 18:17


A German man has been jailed for four years for making pornographic films in the breakaway Somaliland republic.

A judge said Gunter Bischoss, 72, was guilty of unIslamic behaviour and also fined him $10,000 (£6,300).

"The evidence in this case has been exaggerated and I will appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court," AFP news agency quoted Mr Bischoss as saying.

A Somali woman who appeared in some of the home videos was also given a one-year jail term and a $900 fine.

'Never allowed back'

The BBC's Ahmed Said Egeh in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, says the trial was held outside the city in the prison of Mandhera for security reasons.

"After serving his prison term, he will be deported from Somaliland and never allowed back again," the judge said.

Somaliland has been relatively stable since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991 after the overthrown of Somali President Siad Barre.

Although the region is not recognised internationally, it has its own working political system, government institutions, currency, police force and judiciary.

Much of the rest of Somalia, which has suffered two decades of fighting and clan warfare, is now controlled by Islamist groups which have imposed strict Sharia law in recent years.

More fraud? Really??!!

By Michael Seamark and Tamara Cohen
Last updated at 1:54 AM on 11th January 2011

Swindler is handed four-and-a-half year jail term for 'professionally planned' benefit scam

Her harrowing account of being brutally gang-raped by armed militiamen in Somalia won Amina Muse refuge in Britain.

The mother-of-six, whose asylum application graphically described her brothers being shot dead in front of her, was later given UK citizenship because of the ‘appalling atrocities’.

But the terrifying ordeal, like her identity, was completely bogus – it was merely a front for an elaborate benefit fraud that cost taxpayers more than £400,000.

On the day that Muse claimed that armed men stormed her family home in East Africa she was giving birth in Sweden.

The 38-year-old, who investigators suspect might actually be Kenyan, conned that country out of £50,000.

She spent the money on luxury living, flying between Stockholm and London to perpetuate her scam.
In Britain, she applied for every welfare benefit possible under her false name and claimed further UK handouts using the bogus identity she had adopted to secure a Swedish passport.

Yesterday she was jailed for four and a half years after a jury convicted her of a string of fraud charges.

The judge said the sentence would have been harsher but for consideration of the welfare of Muse’s children, the ‘real victims in this case’.

The court was told she cannot be deported because she is a British citizen. Last night there were demands that the Home Office, which is reviewing her status, remove her from this country.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘This kind of scam brings the whole asylum system into complete disrepute.

‘It’s no wonder there is no confidence in the authorities to properly control our borders and stop our hospitality being abused.

‘The fact that this woman’s future status in this country is in any doubt whatsoever is unbelievable.

There can’t be one person in this country who doesn’t want her kicked out of the country and never allowed back.’

Harrow Crown Court heard that Muse had sought refuge in Britain after eight years of ‘comfortable’ living in Sweden.

On her 2003 asylum application, she claimed militiamen targeted her family home in December 1998 because she was a member of a minority group.

‘They opened fire at us and then broke into our house by force,’ she said. ‘They shot dead my

Besides the murder of her two brothers, she said her niece had been raped, tortured and beaten and that she herself had been gang-raped while three months’ pregnant, leading to a miscarriage.

Between June 2004 and May 2010, Muse, from Neasden, North-West London, claimed £261,358.14 in income support, disability living allowance for one of her children and carer’s allowance for herself.

The total included child benefit, child tax credits and housing benefit from various councils.

She received £112,985.51 from the borough of Camden and lived in a four-bedroom property there.

Judge Stephen Holt, sentencing Muse, told her: ‘One of the most serious aspects of this case is your cynical, dishonest manipulation of the whole system of asylum.’

Condemning her deceit, he said: ‘It was fraud from the outset. It was professionally planned. Your actions harm the people who really do need and deserve asylum.

‘In total you took somewhere in the region of £261,358.14 from the British taxpayer and have shown absolutely no remorse.’

Investigating the case cost taxpayers a further £150,000.

Muse had denied obtaining money transfers by deception, fraud by false representation, 12 counts of making false representations, four counts of receiving overpayments of benefits and five counts of fraud.

Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: ‘It is absolutely essential in a case like this that her citizenship be revoked and she should be removed.

‘All scams of this kind are deeply offensive to the public and undermine support for genuine refugees. It seems to have been a deeply cynical scam from the start.


TIMELINE:

1995: Arrives in Sweden with three children and given passport in her false name, Ayan Abdulle. Has two more children in Sweden and one in Denmark.
2003: using another bogus name, Amina Muse, she applies for asylum in Britain. Original claim rejected.
2004: Decision overturned on appeal and given indefinite leave to remain in UK. She starts claiming £261358 in benefits.
2009: Granted British citizenship

What happened next? The destitute asylum seeker

At the Red Cross Centre in Birmingham, asylum seekers are given £10 food vouchers. Photograph: Fabio De Paola

Amelia Gentleman The Guardian, Monday 27 December 2010


In June, Abdi was living rough on a weekly £10 food voucher. Has his life improved since then?

Abdi appears to have good news when I call him. Three weeks ago, just as the temperatures began to drop below freezing, a friend said he could sleep on the floor of his room for a while. After a year on the streets of Birmingham, this marked a significant turn for the better. However, as he talks, it becomes clear that life has not improved much.

Originally from Somalia, Abdi (who prefers not to give his real name), 34, has been in the UK for two years. For the first year, while his application for asylum was being processed, he received state support, but a year ago the application was rejected. Since then he has been surviving without any money from the state, without anywhere to live, not permitted to work. Homelessness hostels are not allowed to offer him a bed, because he is classified as an illegal migrant.

"Before I was living outside. Now I am living inside, but the difference is very, very minor," he says, laughing and coughing down the telephone. He has been unwell since the cold weather began. The flat where his friend sleeps has no heating, no proper plumbing and is extremely dirty, says Abdi. "When I was outside, I'd never see rats. Inside the flat, the rats jump on me."

When I met Abdi in the summer, he was rotating the places he slept, according to the weather conditions, anxious to avoid arousing suspicion by sleeping in the same place too often. Sometimes he would hide in a toilet cubicle in a Birmingham mosque, until the building was locked up for the night, and he could sleep undisturbed for a few hours; sometimes he slept in an alleyway, accessible only by climbing over spiked park railings; and sometimes on a cardboard box at the top of a concrete council block staircase.

A few weeks ago, when he was sleeping in the stairway, he thinks a rat or possibly a mouse bit him, giving him an infection in his leg which has made it painful to walk. His friend, a fellow asylum seeker, took pity on him and is letting him sleep on his floor for the moment, until he gets better, but the friend's tenancy comes to an end in January, so both men will shortly be forced to find somewhere new. Where will he go? "This is a very difficult question," he says.

The only income he gets is a weekly £10 Morrisons voucher from the Red Cross. Officially, he is allowed to remain while he prepares to appeal against the Home Office decision to reject his asylum claim, but he is not eligible for any help. He prefers living in destitution here to the alternative, proposed by the Home Office, of returning to Somalia. "If you understand that it is a choice between living here in this way and going back to be slaughtered, then you understand that there is no choice," he says.

He is gathering documents to support his appeal but the process is exceptionally slow, and hampered by the fact that getting any free legal support is increasingly difficult, and by practical obstacles such as not having enough money to spend time in an internet cafe researching his case. He remains hopeful that his appeal will eventually be approved (last year 28% of people who appealed against their refusal were granted leave to remain), but after a year of sleeping on the street, his optimistic outlook has been badly bruised. "It's very complicated. It is so sad," he says.

Joseph Nibizi, manager at the Red Cross destitution clinic where the vouchers are distributed every week, says he is angry that Abdi remains on the streets. He has seen the number of destitute asylum seekers queuing up for emergency help at the centre rise from 860 in January to 1,400 in July. "These people are not here because they are attracted by the [welfare] system in this country. They are here because they have run away from persecution. You can't starve them out of the country, you can't expect them to return home because they are hungry. They won't go," he says. He believes the government should support asylum seekers while they go through the process of appealing a decision. "These are human beings. They should be given their basic needs."

Nine Birmingham charity workers in court on fraud and money laundering charges

Dec 4 2010 by Catherine Lillington, Birmingham Mail

SEVEN men and two female former workers from a Birmingham charity have appeared before city magistrates charged with conspiracy to defraud and launder money.

Mohammed Hassan Abdi Arwo, aged 52, and Abdi Wahab Said, aged 34, both of Waldrons Moor, Kings Heath, Hamud Hirad Yassin, aged 58, of Wembley, London, Sahra Abdillahi Absia, aged 60, of Stratford Road, Sparkbrook, Asha Ali Mohammed, aged 47, and Abdillahi Musa Abdi, aged 53, both of Greenway Street, Bordesley Green, Abdirahman Arwo, aged 37, of Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Mustafe Hassan Arwo, aged 41, of Gaddesby Road, Small Heath and Kaise Ismail, aged 36, of Stoney Road, in Perry Barr, all worked for the Aston Brook Housing Association.

The charity provides help for the Somali refugee community.

All nine ex-employees were granted conditional bail and told to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on February 25.

Asylum seeker housing charity has contracts terminated

May 22 2008
By Shahid Naqvi

A Birmingham charity which is the biggest in the country for providing housing to asylum seekers is facing closure after losing Government contracts worth £11 million in the wake of a fraud inquiry.

Astonbrook Housing Association based on Moseley Road, Highgate, is being investigated by police following allegations of misuse of public funds.

The Charity Commission - a watchdog that regulates UK charities - put the association under the interim management of Birmingham accountants Baker Tilly last year.

On Wednesday, 15 people were dismissed by the accountancy firm which also terminated Astonbrook’s lucrative five-year contract with the Home Office this week, effectively cutting off its income.

Last night the Astonbrook - most of whose 150 staff are Somalian - hit back claiming it had been victimised by the Charity Commission because it was a black-run charity.

It also accused Baker Tilly of siphoning off £1 million in fees while overseeing its destruction and stressed no charges had been brought despite a year-long investigation.

Saeed Omar, director of Astonbrook, said: "It is the biggest charity to be run by black and ethnic minorities. We have been discriminated against. We feel the Charity Commission took our charity and gave it to someone who sucked out our money.

"They sucked out our money without doing anything. Baker Tilly ran the company for a year. Their duty was to look after the charity and preserve it until new trustees were appointed.

"They have destroyed the charity and nobody will speak about the £1 million they have taken. We feel Baker Tilly handed back the contract to stop anyone investigating this."

Astonbrook - which was set up by a group of former Somali asylum seekers in 2002 - gained the biggest Government contract to provide homes for asylum seekers two years ago.

Since then it has received almost £20 million in public money providing accommodation for refugees in the Midlands, South West, Wales and Yorkshire.

But the charity - which also has an office in Erdington - was raided by police last July following concerns raised by Birmingham City Council and the Home Office. Seven managers were arrested and released on bail.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: "This is a long and complex investigation and any charges will be communicated in the usual manner."

Baker Tilly last night refuted the criticisms made by Mr Omar.

"We categorically reject any suggestion undermining our undertaking as interim managers of Astonbrook which has been a challenging and complex project involving an ongoing fraud investigation which remains current.

"The fees and costs involved, which have been approved by our appointers the Charity Commission, have not in any way impacted upon services to the beneficiaries of the charity who remain our priority."

The UK Border Agency - a Home Office department responsible for immigration control - said it made "no apologies for demanding that tax payers get value for their money and asylum seekers receive an adequate service".

The Charity Commission said it would release full details about the case when the inquiry reached its conclusion



Read More http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2008/05/22/asylum-seeker-housing-charity-has-contracts-terminated-65233-20945583/#ixzz19o8kI6nh