Photo: Mykl Roventine @ flickr

A man who sued a series of London councils – including Hackney, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets – for compensation after injuring himself falling over on pavements is to appear in court on fraud charges.

Nathan Williams, 38, of Soho, is said to have attempted to obtain money by deception from eight different authorities between 2007 and 2008.

He claimed to have suffered a range of injuries as a result of council negligence during the eight month period, including broken bones, fractures and a bruised testicle.

But following an inquiry conducted by police and several authorities, Williams has been charged with eight counts of fraud.

City of Westminster Magistrates’s Court heard that  Williams’ first compensation claim followed a fall on a broken pavement in Boleyn Road, Hackney. Nine months after the incident itself, he complained of an injured hand and foot.

During spring and summer 2008, Williams then proceeded to claim accidents on seven other occasions in different locations around the city.

The rapid succession of claims included attempts to obtain money from Haringey, Westminster, Wandsworth and Southwark councils.

His final fall, supposedly caused by ‘raised ironwork’ in Woolwich Road, Greenwich, took place just one day after another claim in Tower Hamlets.

He has been remanded in custody and will appear in court again on 1 September.

The Old Bailey. Photo: Bill Tyne @ flickr

A former taxi driver from Stepney has appeared in court to admit the manslaughter of his 100-year-old mother earlier this year.

Michael Fitzgibbon, 62, admits stabbing elderly Hannah Fitzgibbon in the neck at their East London home in February.

Appearing at the Old Bailey, he plead manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

After committing the crime, the court heard, Mr Fitzgibbon told his brother and police: “I’ve just gone mad.”

Though he was originally charged with murder, prosecutors accepted the plea due to psychiatric evaluations that indicated Fitzgibbon was suffering from moderately severe depression and the early effects of Parkinson’s disease.

Prosecuting, Crispin Aylett QC remarked that although Fitzgibbon had not been formally diagnosed at the time of the incident, symptoms of his mental state had been ‘apparent’ to family and friends.

“This occurred at a time when it seems that in fact the defendant’s own health was deteriorating at a rather more rapid rate than that of his mother,” he said.

“Neither psychiatrists nor anyone else could think of any rational explanation for why the defendant would have killed his mother other than the one the defendant himself offered in the immediate aftermath.”

Pre-sentence reports have been ordered to determine whether Fitzgibbon will be jailed or given a supervision order due to his state of health. Sentencing will take place on 13 September.

Ranjit Nankani and Dwayne McPherson. Pic:Met Police

A Croydon man has been jailed for life for murdering another man by driving his car at him outside the Ministry of Sound nightclub in South London.

Ranjit Nankani, 30, killed Gary Johnson, 25, from Streatham following an argument inside the nightclub in August last year.

After driving his Mitsubishi Shogun at Johnson, pinning him to a wall, Nankani himself miraculously survived an attempt on his own life when Johnson’s friend,  Dwayne McPherson, 28,  from Sydenham, fired four shots at him at close range. McPherson was also found guilty of attempted murder.

Aftab Jafferjee, QC, prosecuting, told the jury at the Old Bailey that the case involved  ”breathtaking lawlessness on the streets of London.”

He said that what had began as  a relatively minor incident had escalated into ”murderous violence.”

The drama began when Nankini accidentally stepped on the toes of Johnson inside the nightclub. He apologised, but there was a violent confrontation between Johnson and McPherson on one side and Nankini and two other men  on the other side. However, bouncers broke up the fight and threw both groups out of the club.

However, Nankini went back to his car and saw McPherson and Johnson walking down the street.

Closed circuit television camera footage played to the court showed the Shogun being driven onto a pavement and knocking over a bollard, before accelerating, hurling Mr Johnson against a wall and killing him instantly. The Shogun then crashed into a taxi containing two woman, who the court heard, were lucky to escape with their lives.

McPherson then pulled out a gun, went over to the Shogun and fired four rounds at close range into the vehicle. Nankini survived with only a small shoulder wound.

The jury rejected Nankini’s defence that he got into the Shogun and then heard gunshots, , ducked down behind the steering wheel and drove off in an attempt to escape being shot but not being able to see where he was heading.

Sentencing him to a minimum of 18 years, Judge Stephen Kramer said his attack must have involved a degree of premeditation. He said: ‘’It was a targeted revenge attack on a crowded public street when people were leaving the club to go home. You waited and you used your vehicle as a lethal weapon in the streets.”

McPherson will be sentenced later. The trial was unable to resolve the question of whether the gun had been smuggled into the nightclub.

Photo: Loz Flowers @ flickr

An assistant caretaker at a school in Tower Hamlets has been found guilty of possessing indecent images of children and perverting the course of justice after planting  child pornography on a colleague’s laptop.

Neil Weiner, 39, framed his boss, Edward Thompson, 61, caretaker at Swanley School in Whitechapel, to get him sacked and win a promotion,  the court heard.

Child pornography was found on the personal computer of  Mr Thompson after the police received a CD and hand-written note, sent from Chelmsford, which purported to be a tip-off.

Mr Thompson told the Old Bailey he got ‘the fright of [his] life’ when he learnt that he had been accused of possessing the materials in 2006. He was immediately suspended from his job.

He  said he was stunned when a “posse of coppers” turned up on his doorstep four months later to arrest him after more than 400 child pornography images were found on his £1,200 laptop.  After the details of the accusations were published by the local press, he told the court that he had faced abuse in public. Mr Thompson said he and his wife, “were constantly abused in the streets by the locals because of my face being in the paper.”

Weiner, who joined the school in 2005, was said to be a ‘computer wizard’ who had previously worked in IT and believed himself to be as capable as the school’s head of department.

The court heard that Weiner had told friends Sandra Godfrey and friend Susan James of his plan to download child porn on to a CD and then place it on Thompson’s computer, before reporting him to the police.

Prosecutor Richard Milne said: ‘”Weiner planted child porn, indecent images, of almost the highest serious nature on his computer for no better reason than to get him sacked so that he, Weiner, could get promotion.”

The  jury at the Old Bailey found Weiner guilty of perverting the course of justice and two counts of possessing child pornography by a majority verdict of ten to two in each case. He will be sentenced in September.

Thompson, who is married with two sons, said that he had immediately suspected that someone among his colleague of the attempt to frame him, because of his poor relationship with them. He described ‘[taking] the Micky’ out of Weiner, who he described as ‘childish,’ adding: “I have a reputation of being exceedingly grumpy, bad tempered and irascible – that’s what I am.”

Photo: Francesca Waite

Plans to trial extended police powers controlling drinking in the streets of Lewisham have been given the go-ahead by Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock.

The  measures will give police discretionary powers to stop people and confiscate, demand and dispose of any alcohol within the boundaries of Lewisham borough. A public consultation has now been launched, which is a legal requirement before the scheme can be introduced.

There are currenly two drinking control zones in Lewisham: The Lewisham Drinking Control Zone which extends along Lewisham High Street from Lewisham Central to Catford, and Upper Brockley Road Drinking Control Zone – implemented in April 2008.

The order, known as a Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) would extend the police powers throughout Lewisham. The order is a measure that can assist in tackling problematic street drinking linked to anti-social behaviour. Police and the council say the intention of the DPPO is to provide police with a tool to address alcohol-related disorder, not to ban public drinking.

Failure to comply with a request from the police to hand over alcohol could result in an arrest and/or a fine of up to £500.

The DPPO would be reviewed following a 6-month trial period.

Sir Steve said: “The difficult issue of anti-social behaviour brought about by street drinking needs to be tackled and the implementation of a pilot borough-wide DPPO will enable us to review its effectiveness and look at our options, once the results have been analysed at the end of the pilot.”

Borough Commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Jeremy Burton, said: “The use of this power is not directed at stopping people drinking responsibly in public; it is a further tactic in our drive to reduce anti-social behaviour associated with alcohol abuse and misuse. We will continue to work with Lewisham Council and our communities in combating alcohol related disorder and I look forward to the results of this pilot.”

To take part in the consultation go to www.lewisham.gov.uk and click on the ‘Check our active consultations’ and then ‘Lewisham Designated Public Place Order’.

Comments can be emailed to communitysafety@lewisham.gov.uk

The consultation ends on 27 August.

To see the full announcement from the council, go to the Brockley Central blog:

http://brockleycentral.blogspot.com/2010/08/public-drinking-public-consultation.html?showComment=1281622777839

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Eveline Kelmenson was found dead on New Year's Day 2009.

A man has appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of an elderly woman who was found dead in Stamford Hill early last year, having been bound with duct tape after a robbery.

Kuba Dlugosz, 32, a Polish national of no fixed abode, appeared at Havering Magistrates Court last Wednesday, charged with the death of Eveline Kelmenson. He also faces charges of burglary.

The body of Miss Kelmenson, 83, was discovered at her home in Leweston Place on New Year’s Day 2009. Her legs had been bound with tape, and she was later found to have died of hypothermia.

A strictly Orthodox Jewish woman who never married and had lived alone since the death of her sister in 2007, Miss Kelmenson was robbed of a gold necklace and ring – the latter a family heirloom.

Police forced their way into the three-storey house on 1 January after a niece raised concern.

At the time, neighbours recalled that Miss Kelmenson, who was also known to family and friends as Lina, had complained that she had previously been the target of thieves, but said they had not acted on her comments.

“She was a really nice old lady and we are very shocked about it,” one added.

Dlugosz is due to reappear in court in November.

Gulistan Subasi was murdered earlier this year.

A 16-year-old has appeared in court, charged with the murder of a young Turkish mother in Hackney earlier this year.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies shooting 26-year-old Gulistan Subasi at her home in Homerton.

Subasi was shot in the chest at close range at around 8:30pm on 22 March, after answering the door at her mother’s flat off Kingsmead Way.

The youth, from Willesden, appeared at the Old Bailey today via video link, pleading not guilty to a single charge of murder.

The accused will stand trial in December, alongside alleged accomplice 24-year-old Izak Billy from Kensal Green, who has not entered a plea.

Proceedings are expected to last for two weeks.