Author: Benjamin

A sacked HM Revenue and Customs officer who helped her husband launder £3.3million was caught after leasing an expensive Bentley car and enjoying lavish holidays.Kuldip Badesha used the taxman’s systems to produce letters including fake National Insurance numbers and signatures.Kuldip Badesha pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office. Picture: HMRCThe 46-year-old then handed the details to her partner Ranbir Singh who opened two of 85 bank accounts with them and then used them to launder money between 2015 and 2018.The former compliance officer, of Cockpit Pilot’s View, Chatham, met Singh, 46, before he was jailed for 11 years for kidnap…

New drone images show the aftermath of the devastating fire at a former Debenhams where dozens of residents were evacuated.A second boy has now been arrested after crews were called to the Guildhall Street site in Canterbury at about 8.30pm on Monday.Debenhams in Canterbury in the aftermath of Monday’s fire. Picture: TheDroneMan.netAt its height, 50 firefighters were on hand to tackle the inferno at the empty department store, which led to the evacuation of 30 people from their flats, with one person requiring medical treatment.This afternoon police confirmed a second arrest has been made – this time a 15-year-old boy…

The new space would provide care for five young people in the borough as the cost of placements for the council reportedly grows. The proposal was approved by the authority’s executive committee at a meeting on November 27. The site of the new service has not been publicly revealed but council documents claim it is within the Chislehurst area and functioned as a private children’s home until eight months ago. Officers said that the authority decided to make a competitive offer for the property swiftly as it was already subject to an agreed sale to a private care home operator.…

A large parcel of land has exchanged hands to allow a “much-loved” primary school to expand and add hundreds of new places.Rosherville Church of England Academy recently won approval for its bid to move to a new site at the Cable Wharf Development in Northfleet.Plans to expand The Rosherville Church of England Academy in Northfleet, creating 280 additional school places, have advanced. Photo: KeepmoatA £10million expansion and relocation has been on the cards for decades and will see the school, which currently has around 140 youngsters aged four to 11 on the books, add an additional 280 school places.When the…

More than a quarter of jobs at a university could be slashed in a bid to save £20 million, KentOnline can reveal.Vice-chancellor Rama Thirunamachandran has told Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) staff about 80% of the savings will come from redundancies.Up to 400 jobs could be cut at Canterbury Christ Church UniversityKentOnline understands the move will put some 400 roles at risk – 26% of the institution’s 1,500-strong workforce.This website spoke to a member of staff today who said they were told about the redundancies during an online call with Prof Thirunamachandran this morning.“We were told a few months ago…

Seven men – including people from Greenwich, Bromley, Hillingdon and Ealing – have now been sentenced in total for their roles in the drug operation. The group hid the drugs within the arm of an industrial digger and organised an online auction to make the excavator’s transportation to Australia look legitimate. It’s reported that MDMA would have sold for far more than the UK street price. The digger was first stored in an industrial unit in Grays, Essex. Two men, Tony Borg and Philip Lawson, arranged for a welder to cut the vehicle’s arm to seal the Class A drugs.…

This is the moment flames engulfed a van by a busy road junction during morning rush hour.Pictures show the parked vehicle well ablaze in Benenden Road, Wainscott.A van on fire this morning in Frindsbury Hill, WainscottOne fire engine was sent to Frindsbury Hill, close to the The Sans Pareil roundabout, just before 7.30am.The road was shut while firefighters were at the scene and thick black plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the charred van.Crews used a hose reel jet to put the blaze out and the incident was declared over at 8.16amOne fire engine was called to the…

A 13-year-old boy who stabbed a teenage girl in the street in an apparently motiveless attack has been spared custody.The youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, left his 15-year-old victim needing emergency bowel surgery from the wound inflicted with a kitchen knife on March 22 this year.The air ambulance was called to Adelaide Drive in SittingbourneMaidstone Crown Court heard that the boy, then aged 12, had crouched behind a car in Adelaide Drive, Sittingbourne, before pouncing on his victim shortly before 4pm.The girl, said to have been stabbed “hard” in the abdomen by her assailant, had to be…

A mixture of “technical issues” and “communication failures” prevented a town’s Christmas lights switch-on over the weekend, says a council.The decorations were set to be illuminated during Broadstairs and St Peter’s annual Christmas Fair on Saturday, November 30, but it was not to be.Hundreds of residents attended the Christmas Fair in Broadstairs over the weekend. Picture: Broadstairs & St Peter’s Town CouncilDespite a year of preparation by staff the highly anticipated event was left in the dark, the town’s mayor explained.Cllr Mike Garner said: “Unfortunately, the decorative lighting switch-on in Broadstairs and St Peter’s did not go as planned.“Despite a…

Essential maintenance and tunnel works will see closures of the West Tunnel, East Tunnel, and QEII Bridge from Monday, December 2, to Monday, December 9. Diversions will be in place via National Highways and local roads. The Dartford Crossing, previously known as the Dartford Tunnel until 1991, is a major road crossing over the River Thames in England. It connects Dartford in Kent (south) to Thurrock in Essex (north) via the A282 road. This information is accurate at the time of publication, but may be subject to change, particularly in adverse weather conditions. Monday, December 2 – Tuesday, December 3…