The Catch-up: G4S driver who stole £1m from his own van jailed

Yahoo UK Staff
Catch-up
Catch-up

What happened?

A G4S driver has been jailed for stealing nearly £1 million in cash from the van he was driving for the company. Joel March, 36, fled with deposit boxes after abandoning the cash-in-transit vehicle in a leafy south London street on April 23 then concealed the stolen money from the police. March, of Rectory Grove, Clapham, admitted theft by employee and concealing the proceeds of crime and was jailed for four years and eight months.

Missing money

Prosecutor Alex Agbamu told a hearing at Inner London Crown Court in May the total amount of missing cash was around £900,000 – £880,000 of which is still missing and unaccounted for. The court also heard that the day after the theft March spent around £1,400 in cash on new sportswear and footwear from JD Sports.

The prosecutor said that March arrived for work on the morning of the crime and picked up the van with 48 containers of cash totalling £916,190 inside. But instead of delivering the cash around the Holborn area the father-of-three had driven to Larkhall Rise in Clapham, ditched the van and fled with the cash. 43 of the 48 deposit boxes containing £889,440 were missing from the van. The van was left in the street, which had no CCTV cameras, for a number of hours before a member of the public reported it to G4S.

Read more

G4S driver blew £1,400 in JD Sports after stealing £1m from firm's van (Evening Standard)

G4S driver charged after 'stealing £1 million from van he then abandoned in street' (Yahoo News UK)

G4S shares dive as Garda backs out of takeover (Evening Standard)

Boris Johnson’s plan to recruit 20,000 more police officers will begin within weeks. As well as the extra officers the new Prime Minister will launch an urgent review into plans to make it easier for forces to use stop-and-search powers. The recruitment drive – one of Mr Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign promises – will start in September and the Prime Minister wants it completed over the next three years. Do you think Prime Minister Johnson will come good on his promise? Read the full story and have your say below:

Paedophile nurse Carl Beech jailed for fabricating VIP sex abuse ring

A former nurse who made up a murderous VIP paedophile ring has been jailed for 18 years for his “cruel and callous” behaviour. Carl Beech, 51, ruined the reputations of high-profile figures by continually lying to detectives about the existence of the group. His allegations, which included claims he had been taken out of lessons during the 1970s and 1980s to be abused and that he had witnessed three children murdered at the hands of the invented VIP ring, prompted the force to launch the £2 million Operation Midland inquiry, which ran from 2014 to 2016 and eventually closed without a single arrest being made. Read the full story here (The Telegraph)

'Severe thunderstorms' cause travel chaos for hundreds at Heathrow

Hundreds of passengers have been left stranded at Heathrow Airport after freak weather conditions caused flight cancellations and delays. Frustrated airline passengers vented their frustration at several airlines and the airport as huge queues built up and passengers reportedly lost luggage. Several flights were cancelled last night because of thunderstorms, leading to huge tailbacks this morning as stranded fliers returned to the airport. Read the full story here (Yahoo News UK)

A young child climbed onto the baggage conveyor belt at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, after escaping the attention his mother at the Spirit Airlines ticket counter. The two-year-old boy went through the machinery and even ended up falling through a luggage chute. He was eventually rescued by airport staff. (Yahoo News UK Video)

£30,000

Fewer than half of Britons expect to ever earn £30,000 a year or currently do so, a new YouGov survey shows. More than half of 18-24-year-olds expect to earn £35,000 a year at some point, but the number either still expecting to earn that or actually receiving it in their 50s is far lower at 31%. “The survey showcases the sad spectacle of expectations coming into contact with reality”, said Matthew Smith, a data journalist at YouGov. (Yahoo Finance UK)