This is the moment the ringleader one of the UK's largest 'chop shop' cams was caught by police after getting trapped behind a van. Amaan Zameer, 30, and fellow gang members Mohammed Nadeem, 28, Nadeem Arshad, 42, and Zahir Hussain, 31, stole at least 117 vehicles from across the country in burglaries and violent carjackings. They used the parts to repair damaged cars they had bought at salvage auctions. The cars were assembled at 'chop shops' in Birmingham before being sold on eBay, Gumtree and Autotrader, earning the gang more than £1million in profit. One unsuspecting customer paid more than £10,000 for a VW Golf that police later revealed had been fitted with airbags from a stolen car that would not have deployed in the event of a crash. The gang were caught when one car owner traced his stolen £70,000 Mercedes to a garage in Birmingham where police eventually found Zameer, Hussain and Nadeem. Police bodycam footage shows Amaan Zameer, 30, … [Read more...] about Dramatic moment police catch gang boss behind Britain’s biggest ‘chop shop’ cowering behind van – after his crooks made more than £1m by fixing-up wrecks with parts from stolen cars
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Homo Sapiens review – extraordinary vision of a post-human world
If the spirit of Stanley Kubrick lives in any current film-maker, it is surely the Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter, whose 2008 documentary Our Daily Bread was a chilling study of mechanised food production and animal slaughter. Now he has created a visually extraordinary film composed simply of long, static shots of abandoned human constructions: theatres, hospitals, swimming pools, malls, railway stations, entire apartment complexes. He has found images from all over the world, including Fukushima and Nagasaki in Japan. This simple, eerie succession of images is as gripping as any of the sci-fi thrillers or post-apocalyptic dramas that would normally use scenes like these as establishing shots. At first, I almost expected to see a group of armed YAs blunder into the wrecked streetscape of mossy, overgrown buildings. Geyrhalter goes beyond ruin porn to a sustained meditation on the post-human state; his film is perhaps inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss’s remark: … [Read more...] about Homo Sapiens review – extraordinary vision of a post-human world
Helen McCourt murder: Decision to release killer Ian Simms to be reviewed by Parole Board
A review has been ordered into the decision to approve the release of a murderer who has never revealed the whereabouts of his victim's body.The family of Helen McCourt, who was 22 when she was killed, spoke of their shock last month when the Parole Board confirmed her killer Ian Simms had "met the test for release".Pub landlord Simms was convicted of her 1988 murder following overwhelming DNA evidence but he has never admitted guilt or revealed where he left her body.Her mother Marie has campaigned to keep killers behind bars until they lead police to the victim's body - dubbed Helen's Law - but the proposed legislation failed to be ratified before parliament was dissolved.On Tuesday, it was confirmed the Parole Board will review its decision to sanction Simms' release after a request by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland. Advertisement A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "After carefully considering the details of this case, we believe there is an arguable case to meet … [Read more...] about Helen McCourt murder: Decision to release killer Ian Simms to be reviewed by Parole Board
Les Misérables review – savvy cop procedural swerves into molotov mayhem
This movie from first-time feature director Ladj Ly has one of the most striking and even glorious pre-credit sequences I can remember. It shows the cheering, screaming crowds on the streets of Paris last summer, when France had just beaten Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup. This is a seething mass of humanity with tricolours waving everywhere, boiling with joy. Finally, the director flashes up the title over the people, ecstatic in their triumph: Les Misérables. It’s an irresistible irony and it kicks the film off with a great exhilarating jolt of humour, cynicism, energy and savvy. But what begins as a fascinatingly tough cop procedural gets less interesting when the violence begins, and it becomes a solemnly ponderous issue movie on those familiar subjects of police brutality and community divisions. The stakes are ostentatiously raised, the riot makes it looks like a war movie and it ends unconvincingly. Rather as with Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan from 2015, it’s a … [Read more...] about Les Misérables review – savvy cop procedural swerves into molotov mayhem
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry review – songs of hopeful prophecy and words of warning
“Brexit, Trump, Leicester bloody City.” In his imitable style, Billy Bragg sums up our turbulent times. Although this tour was billed as a celebration of songs from the golden age of the American railroad, it was clear from the outset that this battle-hardened protest singer wasn’t going to let world events go unremarked upon. We’ve got to start paying more attention to the news, Bragg says, and a skilful reworking of The Times They Are a-Changin’ nails it with new lyrics lamenting the backward steps on climate change and women’s rights – among other things – since 8 November. He’s laughing (in a desperate sort of a way) by the time he mentions Britain’s snap election, but uses Accident Waiting to Happen as a hopeful prophecy. Miracles might happen as well, he might have added. The idea of reinterpreting songs is a theme of the night. Bragg, with his friend and fellow musician Joe Henry, spent a couple of weeks travelling … [Read more...] about Billy Bragg and Joe Henry review – songs of hopeful prophecy and words of warning