Bankrupt Banker

Redknapp 'threatened journalist'

Football boss Harry Redknapp threatened to "sue the bollocks" off a journalist as he angrily denied taking bungs, a court has heard. The Tottenham Hotspur manager also said Milan Mandaric did not know what he was talking about in a 2009 telephone conversation with a News of the World reporter. In short extracts read out to a jury at Southwark Crown Court, Redknapp told Rob Beasley he had "the best accountants in England", claiming the Inland Revenue was fully aware of his dealings in Monaco. Mr Beasley spoke to Redknapp days after a telephone interview with Mandaric, the former Portsmouth FC chairman. When Mr Beasley described how Mandaric said the money sent to Redknapp's offshore accounts were investments outside football, the Spurs boss replied that Mandaric did not know what he was talking about, adding: "What is he talking about? It is a bonus." Explaining that the payments surrounded profit made on the sale of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth to Aston Villa, Redknapp added: "If it was something dodgy I would have gone over there and brought it back in a briefcase." When Beasley asked him whether he had paid any tax in the UK on it, Redknapp replied: "Haven't been asked to, Rob." Redknapp said "there ain't nothing crooked in it" as the telephone conversation went on, the court heard. "Don't say bung," Redknapp said. "It's nothing to do with a bung. It's paid by the chairman. How can it be a bung when the chairman of the football club paid me?" Redknapp and Mandaric deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when he was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.

Redknapp 'threatened journalist'

Football boss Harry Redknapp threatened to "sue the bollocks" off a journalist as he angrily denied taking bungs, a court has he...

Coryton refinery job fears after Petroplus go bankrupt

Hundreds of jobs at the Coryton oil refinery in Essex are under threat after Swiss owner Petroplus said it would file for bankruptcy. The government has said the refinery, which supplies 20% of fuel for south-east England, is still operating. Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers says the priority is for work at Coryton to continue without disruption. Other firms say they will still be able to supply fuel, but petrol retailers fear diesel prices will spike. Steven Pearson, on behalf of the administrator, said: "Our immediate priority is to continue to operate the Coryton refinery and the Teesside storage business without disruption while the financial position is clarified and restructuring options are explored." He said there were plans to have a number of discussions during the next few days over the future of the site in Coryton and the business in Teesside. Petroplus has said it will file for insolvency "as soon as possible" after failing to reach an agreement with creditors to extend deadlines for loan repayments.

Coryton refinery job fears after Petroplus go bankrupt

Hundreds of jobs at the Coryton oil refinery in Essex are under threat after Swiss owner Petroplus said it would file for bankruptcy. The...

Government debt passes £1 trillion

The Government's debt has smashed through the £1 trillion barrier for the first time despite a bigger-than-expected fall in borrowing in December, figures have revealed. Public-sector borrowing, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, fell £2.2 billion to £13.7 billion in the month. The City had expected it to fall to £14.9 billion. However, this was still enough to drive net debt to £1,003.9 billion, or 64.2% of GDP, up from £883 billion a year ago and its highest since records began in 1993. The bigger-than-expected fall in Government borrowing in the month was partly offset by a £1.3 billion increase in estimates for borrowing between April and November after local Government spending was revised upwards. Chancellor George Osborne is still on track to hit a target set by the Office for Budget Responsibility to reduce borrowing to £127 billion in the financial year despite fears that the UK is on the brink of recession. Central Government spending fell 0.9% as the Chancellor's austerity measures increasingly kick in while the tax haul rose with the help of last year's rise in VAT to 20% and the levy on banks' balance sheets. It is the fourth month in a row that borrowing has fallen on the previous year. There are fears, however, that the deficit reduction plans may be derailed, with many economists expecting another recession, which would hit tax revenues and increase spending on benefit payments. The Government borrowed a total of £103.3 billion between April and December, which is £11.3 billion lower than the previous year. A Treasury spokesman said on Tuesday: "That our national debt has reached more than £1 trillion simply shows the unsustainable level of spending this country built up over the past few years and shows why it is critical for our nation's future that we deal decisively with the deficit. "The figures show that we are making good progress, with borrowing over £11 billion lower than in the same period last year."

Government debt passes £1 trillion

The Government's debt has smashed through the £1 trillion barrier for the first time despite a bigger-than-expected fall in borrowing ...

the government was deeply concerned about "money laundering, tax evasion, drug trafficking and crime" associated with Gibraltar

<span class="storyTop " style="outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;">The British Government came within a day of doing a controversial deal to share the sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain and end 300 years of conflict over "The Rock".<div class="body " style="outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; line-height: 1.4; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;">Tony Blair and the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were both keen to do a deal over Gibraltar to "help our strategic relationship" with Spain, according to a new book.But the then Europe minister Peter Hain reveals in his memoirs that secret talks with the Spanish government broke down at the last minute when the Spanish got "cold feet" over the agreement.The book, Outside In, also reveals that the government was deeply concerned about "money laundering, tax evasion, drug trafficking and crime" associated with Gibraltar and had little sympathy for local politicians who insisted that the constitutional arrangements should not be altered."Jack's desire to do something about Gibraltar coincided with my gut instinct that it was ridiculous in the modern age for Britain to have a colony on the tip of Spain nearly 2,000 miles away," he writes.He adds that Mr Blair told him: "It is really important to secure a better relationship with Spain and to remove it [Gibraltar] as an obstruction to our relations within Europe." He writes that Mr Blair was contemptuous of Gibraltarian attitudes and insistent upon making a deal that could move the whole situation forward.Mr Hain says that despite the vehement opposition from Peter Caruana, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, he went ahead with negotiations in Madrid. "To our astonishment, as the evening arrived, we realised we had a full agreement... and accepted co-sovereignty could not open the door to full Spanish sovereignty."But talks then foundered and no further progress on the issue has been made subsequently.</div>

the government was deeply concerned about "money laundering, tax evasion, drug trafficking and crime" associated with Gibraltar

The British Government came within a day of doing a controversial deal to share the sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain and end 300 years of...

How Tony Blair tried to give Gibraltar to Spain to curry favour with the European Union

Peter Hain says the then-Prime Minister was “contemptuous” toward the desire of Gibraltar residents to remain under the British flag and told how close Britain came to losing the rocky territory to the Spanish in 2002. Mr Hain tells in his memoirs, published on Monday, how he wanted to work to “do something about Gibraltar”, which has been a British overseas territory since 1713, as soon as he became Europe minister in June 2001. This was based on a “gut instinct that it as ridiculous in the modern age for Britain to have a colony on the tip of Spain nearly 2,000 miles away”. His “African roots” made it easy for him to understand the strong feelings aroused by “a little bit of England trying eccentrically to cling on to Spain”. Mr Hain developed a plan that would see Britain and Spain share the island’s sovereignty, along with “maximum self-government for Gibraltarians”, with economic assistance from the European Union. The plan was “enthusiastically” backed by the then-Labour Prime Minister during a flight back from a meeting with Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi in February 2002. Mr Blair told him on the flight: “It is really important to get a better future for Gibraltar, to secure a better relationship with Spain and to remove it as an obstacle to our relations within Europe.” Mr Hain continues that Mr Blair “was contemptuous of Gibraltarian attitudes and insistent upon making a deal which could move the whole situation forward.” In the book, “Outside In”, Mr Hain admits that he became a “hate figure on the Rock, the target of angry posters and speeches, taking me back over 30 years to the time when I was stopping apartheid rugby and cricket tours”. He accuses residents of Gibraltar of having a “schizophrenic” attitude to their status, wanting a better relationship and new opportunities with Spain but fiercely opposing co-sovereignty. He says: “They remained rigidly wedded to their idea of Britishness in a totally artificial sense.” Mr Hain says that a deal was done with the Spanish Government on 18 April 2002 to allow the British to keep control of a naval base on the island, while the people of Gibraltar could hold a binding referendum. He says: “We shook hands not quiet believing our governments had managed to come together on Gibraltar for the first time in 300 years.” However the deal was short-lived and hours after agreeing it, the Madrid government had vetoed it. A week later Mr Hain was called into Downing Street to see the Prime Minister, who had just had a visit from angry pro-Gibraltar Labour MPs and who was, Mr Hain said, now “relieved” to have been “let off the hook” by the Spanish. Mr Blair told him: “We are not going to be able to strike a deal at this moment because the Spanish aren’t ready for it. Trying to reopen their historic claim is not on. “We should just park the agreement, allow things to settle down, allow opinion in Gibraltar to realise that co-sovereignty is the way we are going, and allow Spain to realise that this deal remains on the table.” Mr Hain says that he and Jack Straw, the-then foreign secretary, “tried to argue with him but to no avail”. Mr Straw went back to Gibraltar a few weeks later where “he was almost violently attacked by a baying mob”. This reinforced Mr Straw's view that Gibraltar should be run by Britain and Spain, and he made a Commons statement setting out that view as British policy in July 2002. A month after Mr Hain stood down as Europe minister in October 2002, a referendum was carried out, in which 98 per cent of Gibraltarians voted to remain under British rule. Mr Hain adds: “I don’t regret what we did or the personal flak that I took in ensuring that, at the very least, co-sovereignty will always remain part of the political architecture for Gibraltar. In time, I believe, serious thinking on the Rock will come to see it not as a threat but as a liberating opportunity.” Since 2006, Gibraltar has governed its own affairs, although defence and foreign relations matters, are Britain's responsibility. Last night a spokesman for Mr Blair said: "Tony Blair has never said or thought Gibraltar should be 'run by Spain'. Nor was he 'contemptuous' of it. It is correct he thought the issue should be carefully handled because of relations with Spain - an important ally - but that is all."

How Tony Blair tried to give Gibraltar to Spain to curry favour with the European Union

Peter Hain says the then-Prime Minister was “contemptuous” toward the desire of Gibraltar residents to remain under the British flag and t...

Bailout chiefs order banks to slash 2,500 workers

THOUSANDS of jobs in the banks must be cut urgently, the country’s bailout team has warned the Government. State-owned banks are paying salaries to huge numbers of unnecessary workers, according to the officials keeping our finances in check. They told the Government that a massive clear-out of bank staff was needed sooner rather than later, to smooth the way for massive restructuring. Workers at bailed-out banks have been bracing themselves for close to 2,500 job cuts for almost a year. But progress has largely been frozen as the Government and trade unions battle to agree redundancy terms. Now, the Irish Independent has learned, the bailout team have told Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his Government that it is unhappy with the slow pace of progress. They have made it clear in no uncertain terms that they want progress before the next financial check-up in April. The team also warned that the failure to begin layoffs was delaying progress in the banks’ internal restructuring. Bailout officials left Ireland at the end of last week broadly satisfied with progress under the €70bn rescue package – but there are underlying concerns over the pace of banking reform. The European Central Bank’s mission head Klaus Masuch has also publicly alluded to their frustrations, stressing that the process of restructuring the banks was about more than simply selling assets. Sources close to the bailout team said they could “understand” the difficulties that had arisen, but insisted that it was “important to make progress”. British-owned Ulster Bank kicked off a year of expected job losses in the banking sector at the beginning of the month. It announced plans to cut 950 jobs from its Irish operations, with 600 to go in the Republic. But plans to cut jobs in bailed-out banks -- including 2,000 at AIB and 350 at Bank of Ireland -- have not progressed in recent months. Even the unions are resigned to the fact that job losses must happen soon -- but they want the best terms for their members. The Government is stalling as it is unwilling to offer outgoing bank staff terms that would be seen as too generous. It is keen to secure a "system wide" package that would work across the banking sector, including any job losses that might be triggered by merging Permanent TSB, which employs more than 1,000, with another institution. While the unions have been pushing for the banks to pay the "industry norm" of six weeks' salary plus two weeks' statutory, the Government has been pushing for a less generous package -- close to the three weeks' pay plus two weeks' statutory that was used for recent HSE cuts. "The Government has always stressed that any redundancy packages in the covered banks must be fair to the employees and also the taxpayer," the Department of Finance said. But bank workers' trade union, the IBOA, said that the Department of Finance was now holding up the inevitable job losses. "We share the troika's frustration at the total procrastination in terms of finalising this thing," IBOA chief Larry Broderick said. "We said to the troika, through (trade union umbrella group) ICTU, that this was something that had to be prioritised." Meanwhile, AIB has also told the union it cannot negotiate on its 2,000 job cuts because it has "no mandate" from the Department of Finance. A spokesman for the department declined to comment on the progress of the redundancy negotiations, pointing to the "sensitivities" of the situation. Sources insisted the issue was a "high priority item" and that negotiations were at an "advanced" stage. AIB announced its job cuts last April and had hoped to begin laying off workers in October. Instead, staff have spent almost a year in limbo and have still not even been told what areas the job cuts will come from. Bank of Ireland is planning to cut 350 jobs on top of the 400 it has already culled. The merger of the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide will also prompt job cuts. Anglo is close to cutting 120 jobs in Ireland and the bank's remaining staff will go over the course of its 10-year wind-down.

Bailout chiefs order banks to slash 2,500 workers

THOUSANDS of jobs in the banks must be cut urgently, the country’s bailout team has warned the Government. State-owned banks are paying s...

Costa tragedy: 'Get back on board, damn it!' T-shirts a hit

A coast guard officer's "Get back on board damn it!" order to the fleeing captain of the capsized Costa Concordia liner is being printed on T-shirts by a company hoping to inspire Italians to rescue their country from economic crisis. Italians have made a hero of coast guard officer Gregorio De Falco for his angry exchange with skipper Francesco Schettino - who has been blamed for the accident and is now under house arrest accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Stefano Ramponi, owner of the Lipsiasoft web agency that is producing the T-shirts and selling them on the Internet for 12.9 euros ($16.63), said they had become an instant hit both in Italy and abroad. "We have had a lot of requests from all over the world, from Brazil, Hong Kong, also from Germany and France, the UK. Everyone is asking us for it," he said. He said he had been criticised by some people for making money out of the January 13 disaster, in which 11 people died and 21 are still missing. But he hoped the slogan will become a rallying cry for all Italians to shoulder their responsibilities and work together to navigate through recession and get the euro zone's third largest economy back on course. "We liked this phrase a lot because it was said by Captain De Falco in an extremely difficult situation, it really impressed us," Ramponi said. "We wanted to... distribute it en-masse...particularly to all the people in Italy who don't concentrate on their jobs, who don't give their all and do harm to Italy in this time of crisis."

Costa tragedy: 'Get back on board, damn it!' T-shirts a hit

A coast guard officer's "Get back on board damn it!" order to the fleeing captain of the capsized Costa Concordia liner is b...

New Zealand police broke through electronic locks and cut their way into a mansion safe room to arrest the alleged kingpin of an international Internet copyright theft case

New Zealand police broke through electronic locks and cut their way into a mansion safe room to arrest the alleged kingpin of an international Internet copyright theft case and seize millions of dollars worth of luxury cars, artwork and other goods. German national Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was one of four men arrested on Friday, a day before his 38th birthday, in an investigation of the Megaupload.com website led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising. A police official said on Saturday that dozens of officers, backed by helicopters, forced their way into the mansion, nestled in lush, rolling farmland, after Dotcom refused them entry, a scene more reminiscent of a James Bond movie than the usual policeman's lot in rural New Zealand. "Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand. Officers broke the locks and Dotcom barricaded himself into a safe room which officers had to cut their way through to gain access. "Once they gained entry into this room, they found Mr Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a shortened shotgun," he said. "It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door." PINK CADILLAC Two firearms were seized and a 55-year-old New Zealand man has since been charged with illegal possession of a pistol. Computers and documents were also retrieved and more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) was seized from financial institutions. Television footage showed vehicles, including a pink Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, being removed from the property. The house where Dotcom was arrested was one of the largest and most expensive in the country, worth around NZ$30 million. Located in hills northwest of New Zealand's largest city, the mansion is surrounded -- at suitably discreet distances -- by other substantial country homes and luxury lifestyle blocks complete with stables, swimming pools and tennis courts. Dotcom leased the property after being blocked from buying it last year by the government after failing to meet a "good character" test for migrants, although he was granted residency in 2010. Dotcom has previous convictions for hacking, insider trading and embezzlement from his time in Germany and Thailand, according immigration authorities, leading some opposition politicians to question why he was allowed to settle in the first place. Standing some 6'7" (2 metres) tall and reportedly weighing around 300 pounds (136 kg), Dotcom appeared to revel in his outlaw reputation. Personilized number plates on vehicles removed from the site read KIMCOM, HACKER, STONED, GUILTY, MAFIA, GOD and POLICE, according to the indictment. One video on YouTube shows him racing a Mercedes in the Gumball 3000 road rally and talking about bribing a Moroccan official. Another clip shows a 2011 New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland organized and paid for by Dotcom to celebrate his family being granted residency. The display was reported to have cost $500,000. PIRACY DEBATE The arrests were made as the debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where Congress is trying to craft tougher legislation. Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation on Friday, postponing a critical vote in a victory for Internet companies that staged a mass online protest against the fast-moving bills. The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship. Kimand the other men made a brief court appearance on Friday will appear again on Monday. They face extradition and a trial in the United States. On Friday, in a show of support, hackers attacked and temporarily disabled a number of government and entertainment company websites, including the U.S. Justice Department's website. U.S. Justice Department officials have said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders cited in a U.S. indictment was at the low end. The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. Two of the offences carry a maximum penalty of 20 years. The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. Some 100 officers raided four premises in Hong Kong on Friday including luxury hotel rooms, seizing computer equipment and freezing HK$330 million ($42.5 million) in financial assets, according to Hong Kong Customs. Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet. Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the U.S. indictment said

New Zealand police broke through electronic locks and cut their way into a mansion safe room to arrest the alleged kingpin of an international Internet copyright theft case

New Zealand police broke through electronic locks and cut their way into a mansion safe room to arrest the alleged kingpin of an internation...

Spanish Bad Loans Reach 7.51% In Nov; Deposits Drop

The bad debt ratio of Spain's banking sector rose for the eight consecutive month in November to a new 17-year high, while deposits and loans shrunk further as the country edged towards a double-dip recession, data released Wednesday by the Bank of Spain showed. According to the data, 7.51% of loans held by banks were more than three months overdue for repayment in November, up from 7.42% in October. It is the highest percentage recorded since November 1994, and contrasts with bad debt levels below 1% of all loans in the years prior to the country's 2008 property bust. High unemployment, falling house prices and the sluggish economy likely will cause bad loans to continue to rise throughout this year and into 2013, said Goncalo Guarda Garcia, an analyst at Portuguese brokerage BPI. Lenders have been struggling to cope with steep losses on loans extended to the real-estate and construction sector, as the country tackles the deepest economic downturn in decades and an escalating debt crisis in the euro zone that has sharply reduced their access to financial markets. Guarda Garcia also said he expects loans to shrink at a faster pace this year as lenders reduce risk on their balance sheets. The November data showed banks had cut lending by 2.54% on the year, while the pool of deposits shrunk at an annual rate of 2.14%. The new Spanish government said earlier this month that after stalling in the third quarter, the economy had contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011 and is set to shrink further this quarter. Overall, EUR134.1 billion in loans were non-performing in November, up from EUR131.9 billion in October and EUR104.7 billion a year earlier. Banks had set aside a total of EUR73.82 billion to cover these soured loans at the end of November, up from EUR62.2 billion a year earlier. The amount of provisioning will likely rise sharply next month, as many of the country's lenders are expected to set aside a large chunk of their earnings to cover loan losses. As of November, Spain's banks had total of EUR1.79 trillion in loans outstanding, down from EUR1.84 trillion a year earlier.

Spanish Bad Loans Reach 7.51% In Nov; Deposits Drop

The bad debt ratio of Spain's banking sector rose for the eight consecutive month in November to a new 17-year high, while deposits an...

Judge orders search of News of the World executives' computers in bid to find out if key hacking evidence was destroyed

A judge overseeing the settling of hacking claims by victims of News of the World has ordered executives' computers be searched. Senior managers at News Group Newspapers – the parent company of the News of the World – were criticised by Mr Justice Vos, the judge supervising the settlements. Jeremy Reed, who is acting on behalf of several victims of phone hacking, said that when the News of The World moved offices in 2010, computers used by journalists accused of hacking were destroyed. He disparaged their reaction to a request in 2010 from lawyers for the actress Sienna Miller to retain emails that might be relevant to a phone hacking claim. Within three days, the judge said, ‘a carefully conceived plan to delete emails was put into effect at the behest of senior management’. He said the evidence raised ‘compelling questions about whether you concealed, told lies, actively tried to get off scot free’. He ordered the company to search a number of computers, adding that there was evidence that management had a ‘startling approach to the email record’.

Judge orders search of News of the World executives' computers in bid to find out if key hacking evidence was destroyed

A judge overseeing the settling of hacking claims by victims of News of the World has ordered executives' computers be searched. Seni...

Spain is happiest expat destination

The research, from Lloyds TSB International, asked over 1,000 British citizens in the 10 most popular expat destinations to rate their new homes on factors ranging from quality of life to cost of living. Overall, 68 per cent of those interviewed said they were happier in their adopted country than in Britain, rising to 75.9 per cent in Spain. Other countries which fared well on the happiness index were Canada and Germany, where 72.2 per cent and 71.4 per said they were happier respectively. Interestingly, those countries where expats said they had the highest quality of life or best financial prospects were not necessarily where expats were most happy. New Zealand, for example, offered the highest quality of life according to the survey, but was ranked bottom for contentment, while the country where most expats said they were better off – the UAE – was only the fourth happiest place. John Kramer, a British expat who lives in Andalucia, said that he was unsurprised by the fact most expats were happier in Spain, because its "outdoor lifestyle, traditional family values, and positive outlook on life” made it a very easy place to enjoy.

Spain is happiest expat destination

The research, from Lloyds TSB International, asked over 1,000 British citizens in the 10 most popular expat destinations to rate their new...

News International faces FBI phone hacking probe

Yesterday the company paid the actor £130,000 after accepting that it had published stories gleaned from hacking his phone. One of the art...

Warren Buffett increases stake in Tesco

The US investor Warren Buffett has given a boost to the embattled Tesco chief executive, Phil Clarke, by increasing his stake in the supermarket chain, which last week issued a shock profit warning. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment firm increased its stake in the world's third biggest retailer from 3.21% to 5.08%, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday . Dated 13 January, the filing came a day after Tesco warned that trading profit for 2012/13 would be flat as the firm stepped up investment in its home market following its worst underlying Christmas sales performance for decades. Tesco shares fell by as much as 19% on 12 January and hit a 34-month low of 311p on Monday. The shares were up 6p to 327p at the close on Thursday. Share dealings by Buffet – nicknamed the Sage of Omaha after a string of investments made him among the world's three richest people – are closely watched in financial markets. After buying into Tesco in 2006, he has gradually increased his holding. Last year he caused a stir by saying the companyfirm should "look hard" at its loss-making Fresh & Easy chain in the US, although he said he remained supportive of the business. On a trip to Japan in November, he said the global financial crisis was creating opportunities in European equities, adding: "We bought Tesco earlier. I can think of a dozen euro stocks that are attractive … there are stocks I like and wonderful businesses. I could buy more Tesco if the price came down." Tesco shares had dropped earlier on Thursday after a negative note from Goldman Sachs, which warned that there would be further pressure on the sector's profitability.

Warren Buffett increases stake in Tesco

The US investor Warren Buffett has given a boost to the embattled Tesco chief executive, Phil Clarke, by increasing his stake in the super...

Carnival says caring for cruise disaster victims

Carnival Corp & plc, whose luxury liner Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy last week, said it was providing lodging, refunds and other support to people affected by the accident, even as some public relations executives criticized the company's handling of the situation. "I give my personal assurance that we will take care of each and every one of our guests, crew and their families affected by this tragic event," Carnival Chief Executive Micky Arison said in a statement late on Wednesday - five days after the incident that left 11 people dead and 22 missing. Costa Cruise Lines, a unit of Carnival and operator of the ship, has been arranging lodging and transportation for passengers and crew members to return home, and has offered assistance and counseling as needed. It has also begun refunding passengers their cruise fares and all costs incurred while on board. The company also said it was contacting every passenger and crew member or their family and will be addressing personal possessions lost on board. Public relations experts have chastised Carnival for being slow to address the disaster and vague about its response and efforts to prevent similar incidents in the future. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being "outstanding," Carnival's public relations strategy in the immediate wake of the disaster gets a four, said Allyson Stewart-Allen, director of International Marketing Partners, a consulting firm. "It wasn't quick, it wasn't specific, it wasn't reassuring," Stewart-Allen said, noting that Carnival's first statement, released on Saturday nearly 24 hours after the Costa Concordia liner struck rock causing it to capsize, did not quote a specific person. Subsequent statements on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday quoted Arison, who has been in continuous contact with executives in Italy, but has not flown there himself. Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat NBA team, has written six messages on Twitter mentioning the tragedy, but Evan Nierman, founder of Florida public relations firm Red Banyan Group said that was not enough. "If he's the point person, I would want a constant flow of information - Twitter, Facebook, talking to reporters, letting them know what's going on. I would have him out there in a real way. He needs to be in front of cameras, he needs to be meeting with people, he needs to show that he's in charge of the situation." A statement on Wednesday from Costa Cruises, owned by Carnival, said the Italian company commissioned salvage experts in the hours after the accident to draw up a plan to recover the fuel reserves from the ship before they leak into the water.

Carnival says caring for cruise disaster victims

Carnival Corp & plc, whose luxury liner Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy last week, said it was providing lodging, refu...

Doctors may strike over cuts to their pension pots

The British Medical Association, which represents 130,000 doctors and medical students, said two thirds of its members support industrial ...

Meat causes cancer. It’s been said so many times that you’d have to be an idiot not to believe it, right?

The latest confirmation of this apparent common sense was a report published last week in the British Journal of Cancer Research. The authors, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, brought together 11 studies - published between 1993 and 2011 - that assessed the risk of pancreatic cancer from eating red meat and ‘processed’ meat. From this meta-analysis, the authors found that red meat increased the risk of pancreatic cancer for men, but not for women, and that the risk of pancreatic cancer rose by 19 per cent for every 50 grams of processed meat consumed. The simple claim that ‘processed meat causes cancer’ was widely reported after the study was published. However, it would be wrong to assume that such claims about risk are all they are cracked up to be. First, there is the question of whether the association claimed is real. Epidemiological studies like the ones brought together by the Swedish researchers will typically find out what participants ate for a day or a week using a questionnaire or a food diary. Then, the participants will be checked some years later to see who has succumbed to the disease in question. Did people correctly remember what they ate? And did they accurately recall how much they consumed? It would be unusual for anyone to have weighed the food, so the amounts could be inaccurate, too. What else did the participants eat? Did they change their eating habits in subsequent months or years? And what the hell is ‘processed’ meat, anyway? Unless you slaughter your own animals, your meat will have been processed to one degree or another. At what point does meat that has been processed become ‘processed meat’? There are so many ways in which the crude tools of epidemiology could screw up the result of studies like this that it is normal for fairly small risks - like the 19 per cent increase in this case - to be treated with a massive pinch of salt. The authors of this study even note: ‘All studies controlled for age and smoking, but only a few studies adjusted for other potential confounders such as body mass index and history of diabetes.’ Secondly, even if the association is not simply a product of the way in which the study was designed, we still don’t know if correlation equals causation. The best we could say is that the kind of people who like to eat processed meat are a bit more likely to get pancreatic cancer than the kind of people who don’t eat meat at all. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist - or a professor of epidemiology - to realise that vegetarians live, on average, quite different lifestyles from people who tuck into burgers and kebabs. Thirdly, even if this study has somehow managed to be supremely accurate and found a real risk, we have to ask if such an increase is of any practical significance in the real world. Cancer Research UK gives the following statistics on pancreatic cancer: for the UK, the age-standardised rate is 9.3 cases per 100,000 people per year - roughly one person in every 10,000. So even those people who really like processed meat and eat 150g per day would have about a 50 per cent increased risk - or about 15 cases per 100,000. To express that in terms of odds, instead of it being 10,000-to-one that these kebab-and-burger lovers develop pancreatic cancer in any particular year, it would be 6,667-to-one. So, to sum up: the association between processed meat and pancreatic cancer is so weak it might well be a mirage; the increased risk might not be caused by the processed meat itself; and even if it is, the risk is so low that it’s really not worth bothering about. Yet still we are advised to consider cutting down on our red meat and processed meat consumption. Life is, frankly, too short to miss out on such tasty foods on the slim chance that we might lose a few years of life in old age. Still, that won’t stop people being harangued anyway. A particularly unsavoury example of this appeared in Sunday’s Observer. Illiberal Liberal of the Week contender, columnist Barbara Ellen, declared that the bovine attitude of recent governments towards smokers and drinkers should apply to meat-eaters, too. Now that a precedent has been set - that people should be harangued for doing things that are legal but disapproved of by Those Who Know Better - Ellen is simply following through this logic by attacking those who like sausages, bacon and pies. Here’s the argument: people (like smokers and drinkers) who deliberately do things that are bad for them, despite being told time and again that they should not, are now lectured, restricted and even have their basic rights taken away; eating meat - and particularly ‘processed’ meat - increases your risk of getting cancer and is bad for you; therefore, people who eat meat should now be lectured, restricted and even have their basic rights taken away. This is a shocking but perfectly logical argument, if you accept the petty-authoritarian mindset that flourished under New Labour and is still going strong under the Lib-Con coalition (and, indeed, around the world). Given the tone of Ellen’s piece, you might hope that she would end by saying: ‘Of course, telling people not to eat meat is stupid - every bit as stupid as telling them not to drink or smoke or telling them not to be fat. The government should just butt out.’ Sadly, there is no note of irony anywhere. She really does want to stick it to meat-eaters. So, of the supposed risks of eating meat, Ellen declares: ‘This information has popped up regularly for years in all forms of popular media. Indeed, in this era of info overload, if you’ve never come across the “burgers and kebabs are unhealthy” revelation, one would have to presume you’ve been lying in a coma. With this in mind, isn’t it time to ask, exactly how thick, how hard to educate, are meat-eaters and why aren’t they held accountable in the same way everyone else is?’ She continues: ‘Sympathy is in short supply these days. You can’t move for people being blamed for their own miserable situations: smokers who “burden” the NHS; alcoholics who don’t “deserve” liver transplants; obese people who “should” pay more for flights. Even those poor terrified women with the faulty breast implants are said to have “brought it on themselves”. By this logic, people who’ve been regularly informed of the dangers of meat, particularly the cheap processed variety, but who continue to wolf it down should be held just as accountable.’ Now that the precedent has been set for the government to lambast those who engage in unapproved habits, it’s open season on any habit that a campaigner or columnist disapproves of. Ban it! Tax it! Make them get a prescription for it! Deny them medical care! Ellen’s article is objectionable but it only follows the remorseless logic of so many others. There is another lesson from the meat-and-cancer story: at a time when all sorts of dubious claims are made based on junk science and dodgy statistics, only some panics get wide publicity; others just pop up and disappear again in a matter of hours. The difference is that some play to an existing political or media agenda and some do not. The idea that meat causes cancer appeals to health busybodies, politicians scrabbling around for a sense of purpose, vegetarians who can’t win a moral argument about animal rights, and environmentalists who have failed to convince us that increasing the ‘human footprint’ - by wanting to eat more meat, for example - is killing the planet. It’s not quite possessed of the same force as religious fervour - do the ‘right thing’ or live in agony for eternity - but the idea that if you do something naughty like enjoy bacon then you might die in agony before your time, is the best that many such claims-makers have got going for them right now. The only proper response to this junkscience-based illiberalism is to be extremely sceptical of any such claims and to defend everyone’s right to indulge in these petty vices.

Meat causes cancer. It’s been said so many times that you’d have to be an idiot not to believe it, right?

The latest confirmation of this apparent common sense was a report published last week in the British Journal of Cancer Research. The aut...

Tax adviser guilty of fraud scheme

A professional tax adviser from Bedfordshire has been convicted of trying to defraud honest taxpayers of £70 million, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said. David Perrin spent his cut of the stolen cash on expensive second homes, exotic holidays, works of art and luxury cars, a spokeswoman said. The 46-year-old, of Leagrave, Luton, Bedfordshire, was found guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court and will be sentenced next month, she added. Perrin, deputy managing director at Vantis Tax Ltd, devised and operated a tax avoidance scheme which he sold to wealthy taxpayers in order to exploit the law on giving shares to charity, she said. The scheme allowed him to pocket more than £2 million in fees from unsuspecting clients. He used a network of finance professionals to advise more than 600 wealthy clients to buy shares, worth a few pence each, in four new companies he had set up, the spokeswoman said. He then listed the companies on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and paid people money from an offshore account to buy and sell the shares simply to inflate their price. The share owners then donated 329 million shares to various unsuspecting registered charities and tried to claim £70 million tax relief on a total of £213 million of income and company profits. This was based on the shares being worth up to £1 each, rather than the pennies they were originally bought for. Perrin also used the bogus scheme to claim money back, the spokeswoman said. The scheme proved so popular that Vantis employees performed a smug celebratory song at their annual conference, to the tune of I will Survive, she said. It included the verse: "They should have changed that stupid law, they should have buggered charity, but they have left that lovely tax relief, for folks to pay to me." Jim Graham, HMRC criminal investigator, said: "With his knowledge of the tax system, Perrin thought that he was one step ahead of both HMRC and the law. "This cynical fraud not only stole millions of pounds from taxpayers, but also conned innocent charities into accepting gifts of virtually worthless shares, just so Perrin could inflate his own criminal earnings." Perrin was charged with cheating the revenue by dishonestly submitting and dishonestly facilitating and inducing others to submit claims for tax relief which falsely stated values of shares which were gifted to charities. He will be sentenced on February 9 and confiscation proceedings are under way, the spokeswoman said.

Tax adviser guilty of fraud scheme

A professional tax adviser from Bedfordshire has been convicted of trying to defraud honest taxpayers of £70 million, HM Revenue & Cus...

Top former art dealer faces 87 charges after fraud probe

One of Australia's former leading art dealers, Ronald Coles, faces up to 10 years in jail after being charged today with 87 offences relating to an alleged multimillion-dollar investment art fraud scheme. Mr Coles, 64, was ordered to appear at Gosford police station at 10am today. Fraud Squad detectives formally charged him following an "extremely protracted and legally intricate" two-year investigation into his business affairs. Under the Crimes Act, Mr Coles was charged with 77 counts of "larceny as a bailee" and a further 10 counts of "director/officer cheat or defraud". For more than 30 years, Mr Coles specialised in fine art by some of Australia's most celebrated artists, including Sir Arthur Streeton, Eugene von Guerard, Brett Whiteley and Norman Lyndsay. Advertising on national radio and television, he offered clients an opportunity to boost their life savings through the purchase of investment art, which he bought and sold on their behalf, using their superannuation funds. NSW Police launched Strike Force Glasson in January 2009 after a Fairfax investigation unearthed dozens of investors who were missing millions of dollars in lost art and money, all allegedly retained by Mr Coles. Today's police charges relate to more than $8 million in financial loss to a total of 43 clients nationwide. Mr Coles failed to make conditional bail of $50,000. It is understood he offered a car and paintings as surety but they were refused. He is due to appear at Gosford Local Court shortly.

Top former art dealer faces 87 charges after fraud probe

One of Australia's former leading art dealers, Ronald Coles, faces up to 10 years in jail after being charged today with 87 offences r...

Russian ship suspected of carrying munitions to Syria appears near Turkish port

Authorities say a Russian ship suspected of delivering weapons to Syria has anchored off Turkey’s coast. A Foreign Ministry official said...

Five men have been arrested on suspicion of fraudulent transactions from accounts held at Bristol-based stockbroker Rowan Dartington

<div id="topBar" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; width: 1080px; height: 25px; color: #999999; line-height: 23px; position: relative; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div id="stayConnected" style="border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></div></div><div class="columnOne" style="border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; float: left; width: 440px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 12px; text-align: left; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><div class="article" style="border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 18px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Five arrested over Rowan Dartington fraud allegations" class="mainImage" src="http://vicdn.citywirecontent.co.uk/images/2011/05/04/490021-System__Resources__Image-533721.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 20px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; float: right; display: block; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" /><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The arrests have been confirmed by Avon and Somerset Constabulary, which said that the men aged 45, 36, 49, 57 and 23 have all been bailed pending further enquiries but not charged.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The arrests are in connection with high value fraudulent transactions that saw money leave accounts held at Rowan Dartington. The events are understood to have taken place prior to the management buyout headed by current chief Graham Coxell (pictured), who is not one of the five arrested, in February of last year.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">A spokeswoman for Avon and Somerset police said the investigation expanded beyond the Bristol area, with the Cumbria police force also involved. She was unable to confirm if any of the five suspects were former Rowan Dartington employees.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">She stressed that Rowan Dartington was the victim in the investigation rather than a suspect and ‘substantial’ amounts of money were involved.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The FSA declined to comment and said it was unable to confirm or deny whether Rowan Dartington was the subject of an investigation by the regulator.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">In a separate incident, Rowan Dartington was previously fined <a href="http://www.citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/rowan-dartington-writes-off-1m-from-black-hole-after-fsa-fine/a404687" style="border-image: initial; outline-width: initial; outline-style: none; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: #0e6f99; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" title="Rowan Dartington writes off £1m from black hole after FSA fine">£511,000 by the FSA</a> in June 2010 for failing to protect and properly segregate client accounts over a two-year period, following a settlement system failure dating back to 2007. This caused the firm’s back office to be saddled with more than 150,000 unreconciled trades and eventually led to a <a href="http://www.citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/astaire-finds-black-hole-putting-hoodless-takeover-in-doubt/a393628" style="border-image: initial; outline-width: initial; outline-style: none; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: #0e6f99; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" title="Astaire finds black hole, putting Hoodless takeover in doubt">£1.4 million black hole</a> in the stockbroker’s accounts.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Since Coxell took over the business in February last year, he has sought to position the business to benefit from the retail distribution review and announced plans to launch a platform. He has also sought to rebuild the investment management team with the hires of Ashcourt Rowan’s head of collective research Tim Cockerill and Oliver Cowell from Redmayne-Bentley.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Rowan Dartington declined to comment.</div></div>

Five men have been arrested on suspicion of fraudulent transactions from accounts held at Bristol-based stockbroker Rowan Dartington

The arrests have been confirmed by Avon and Somerset Constabulary, which said that the men aged 45, 36, 49, 57 and 23 have all been bailed...

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