Afzal Amin quits Dudley North election race over EDL row

Afzal Amin has resigned as Tory candidate for Dudley North following the row over his links with the EDL.

A party spokesman said: “Afzal Amin is resigning as Conservative candidate for Dudley North with immediate effect.

“Conservative Chairman Grant Shapps has welcomed Mr Amin’s decision and thanked him for his work in the past.”

The Conservative Party will now select a new candidate to fight the constituency.

Mr Amin, who was filmed in discussions with former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, initially said he would fight the allegations in the hope of staying on as parliamentary candidate in the Tory target seat.

But party sources said he had resigned as candidate "with immediate effect", a day ahead of a planned disciplinary hearing.

Hunt for Newcastle sex attacker after 14-year-old girl assaulted in Walker

Teen groped by hooded man while walking along Eastfield Avenue in Newcastle

A sex attacker is being hunted after a teen was assaulted on a Newcastle street.

The 14-year-old girl was groped as she walked along Eastfield Avenue at just before 8am on Monday, March 16.

Police say a man followed her a short distance on foot before touching her ‘inappropriately’ over her clothing.

The girl was left shocked and upset by the incident, said officers.

The offender was wearing a black coat with the hood pulled up.

Northumbria Police’s Neighbourhood Sergeant for the area, Matt Bruno, said: “We have additional officers in the area carrying out enquiries and to reassure local people. We’d ask for anyone with information to contact police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 101 ext 69191 quoting reference number 189 16/03/15 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Acklam pair who carried out £2m frauds jailed for total of more than 11 years

Muhammed Asif Ali sat in the dock alongside his son and wife who received suspended sentences for their part in one of the conspiracies.

A Teesside businessman sat in the dock alongside his son and wife as he was jailed for six and a half years for fraud totalling more than £2m.

Muhammed Asif Ali, and partner in crime Carol Ann Bainbridge, 48, were previously convicted by a jury of conspiring to defraud the former regional development agency One North East of £500,000.

The pair also faced a separate charge of £1.6m mortgage fraud, alongside Ali’s son, Mohammed Salman Ali, 28, and, wife Ghazala Ali, 45.

For her part in both crimes, Bainbridge was jailed for five years.

Teesside Crown Court heard how they defrauded the now-defunct One North East between June 2008 and October 2009.

Prosecutor Andrew Haslam told a previous hearing they took money from the agency and kept it for their own ends in a bank account in Ali’s name.

He said just over £519,000 of taxpayers’ money was paid out by One North East on the basis of false information, and was spent.

He said Ali, 56, of Acklam Road, Middlesbrough, used other people’s identities and appointed “stooges” as company directors, giving him control while hiding his involvement and diverting creditors.

The case concerned a company, Well Springs Green Lane Ltd, and its failed development in Spennymoor, County Durham.

Ali and Bainbridge also took part in the £1.6m mortgage fraud alongside his wife and son where they used false identities or the identities of unsuspecting third parties as well as falsifying incomes to defraud a number of fincial institutions.

Angus McDonald, prosecuting yesterday, said Ali Sr “played a leading role” in the conspiracy while Bainbridge “operated in partnership” with him.

Nigel Ingram, defending Ali Sr, said: “References show he is a man held in high regard in some quarters.

“You are not dealing with a man involved in fraud who was involved in a particularly lavish lifestyle.”

Katy Rafter, for Bainbridge, a mother of Skerne Way, Darlington, said she was “of previous good character before she was involved in this conspiracy”.

In sentencing she asked the judge to take into account that her client had some “genuine mental health difficulties”.

Tanveer Bashir, for Salman Ali, said he “wasn’t a prime mover in the fraud and wasn’t a big mover of the money.

“In reality he wasn’t someone who would have been caught up in this had it not been for the company he kept, ie, his father and mortgage brokers.”

Mohammed Qazi for Ghazala Ali, a mum-of- three of Acklam Road, said but for her relationship with her husband “would she have embarked on this criminality?”

“One of the reasons she was lending support to the (mortgage) applications was that she thought she could retain the security of the family home.”

Ali Sr and his son, also of Acklam Road, admitted taking part in the plot.

Bainbridge and Ghazala Ali denied the conspiracy and were convicted after a trial in December 2013.

Judge Les Spittle, described the frauds as “quite sophisticated” and told Ali Sr: “You are devious and manipulative in your dealings”

Salman Ali was given 22 months suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid community work. His mother Ghazala Ali received 24 months suspended for 18 months with a supervision order.

All defendants were also barred from being a company director for 15 years.

Three North East registered sex offenders are 'missing'

New figures show whereabouts of 396 UK offenders unknown, including two in Northumbria and one in Durham.

Three sex offenders have gone missing in the North East police have revealed.

New figures have shown 396 convicted perverts on the sex offenders’ register in the UK are wanted because their whereabouts are unknown, including some who have been missing for more than a decade.

And two of those were being monitored in the Northumbria Police area, while one was in County Durham.

One convicted sex offender in Northumbria disappeared in May 2002, while the whereabouts of the other has been unknown since November 2008.

Registered sex offenders - including rapists and paedophiles - are required to inform police and probation officers of their addresses and are supposed to be monitored by officials working under multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA).

But in freedom of information responses 39 forces revealed there were missing registered sex offenders in their areas.

Sara Payne, whose daughter Sarah was abducted and killed in 2000 by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting, said: “It’s completely unacceptable that any registered sex offenders have disappeared from authority management, putting the public at risk.

“It’s time to take some serious proactive action to bring them back under the police radar.”

The NSPCC described the figures as “alarming” and said its own research had found there was just one police staff member responsible for every 50 registered sex offenders.

Jon Brown, the charity’s lead for tackling sexual abuse, said: “About half of those on the register are offenders who have raped or sexually assaulted children, or committed online child abuse image offences, however most just receive one police visit a year after they have been released from prison and a period of supervision.

“The monitoring of registered sex offenders in communities needs urgent attention by the Government to ensure it is fit for purpose.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring the system is as robust as possible.

“It is for the police to manage offenders in their area, but we work closely with forces to ensure legislation is effective and that officers have all the tools they need.”

And Deputy Chief Constable Michelle Skeer, who is the National Policing Lead for the Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders, added: “Protecting the public from sexual and violent offenders is a key role for the police service.

“A large proportion of the recorded wanted or missing sex offenders are, following investigation, either known or believed to be living abroad or have returned to their country of origin. When registered sexual offenders (RSO’s) are missing or wanted in the UK, all police forces are alerted. If they return to the UK, there are several processes in place to ensure that they are brought to the attention of police and arrested where appropriate.

“The UK has some of the most effective tools in the world to manage RSO’s. While the reality is that the risks posed to the public by such individuals can never be completely eliminated, there is significant evidence that the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) successfully keeps them to a minimum.

“The new Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO) and Sexual Risk Orders (SRO) mean that, for the first time, we can safeguard children or vulnerable adults abroad as well as in the UK. “Along with the Shengen information system (SIS II) these will significantly enhance the existing procedures and processes we have in place.”