Litter louts beware! LITTER louts in Maidstone need to clean up their act – or face a hefty fine. Since the council’s enforce-


ment teams were hired last July, they have collected £345,000 in penalty notices and issued an average of 85 tickets each week. Four officers from London company XFOR operate in teams of two across the town centre, issuing fines of £75 to people caught dropping litter. However, it is not all profit


for the council as almost 50% of the fine goes towards paying for XFOR’s services. It is estimated the enforce-


ment teams have issued 6,120 penalty notices since July. The amount collected in fines does not include costs awarded from courts if someone is prosecuted and found guilty. XFOR employs six staff to run


its Maidstone operation – two administration officers and the four enforcement officers.


Takeaway allowed to


replace hair salon A HOT food takeaway is to re- place Dyson Brown (formerly Blu Hairdressing) at 95a Week Street, Maidstone. Maidstone Council granted planning permission for the new business to be established on the ground floor and a one- bedroom flat on the first floor. Both sectionswere used as hair salons for many years.


M E S


Electrical (NICEIC) test


£99.99


Smoke detector


£39.99


Glyn is hacked off by fraudsters By Dennis Fowle


MORE than 300 friends and contacts of Glyn Charlton and his familywere shocked to learn they were in distress, high and dry on aMadrid holiday after being mugged in the hotel car park. About 30 immediately replied to an email


for urgent funds to settle their bill and “find our way back home”. MP Helen Grant also received the email and contacted the For- eign Office to seek urgent action. But when Glyn (pictured), chairman of


East Farleigh and vice-chairman of Tovil parish councils, first heard of all this hewas sitting happily in a boardmeeting as a governor of Hadlow College, only 10 miles from his home in East Farleigh. It was all a complex computer hacking scam.


Without his knowledge the hackers had removed his full computer address book and emails since


AMAIDSTONE manwas given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 300 hours community service after he and his father defrauded the Inland Revenue out of £6m. Michael McKinley (41) from Fennel Close, and his father MarcusMcKinley (67) were ar- rested in 2006 for offences committed between 1997 and 2004. Both were directors of Strandthorpe Building Services Ltd, which was dissolved in 2002 and MCK Structural Serv- ices Ltd, dissolved in 2006. Both businesses were based in Locksbottom, Kent. The fraud, which amounted


February. Everyone who responded to the first


email quickly received another asking for £1,250 wired throughWestern Union.


“I was astounded when a copy of the


email was brought in to the meeting,” said Glyn, who has retired from farm manage- ment. “Myphone has been busy ever since with calls from concerned friends.


“Hopefully no one has despatched money. I would feel awful and responsi- ble.”


Glyn has been advised there is nothing the police


can do – even if he believes the second email in- volves a crime.


He also contacted BT Internet and his password


has been changed and address book restored. Friends who opened the spam emails are being ad- vised to change their passwords.


Tax evasion does not pay


to more than £6m in unpaid tax, involved the creation of false purchase invoices and the hijacking of details of unwit- ting legitimate companies. Michael McKinley received a 12-month jail sentence sus- pended for two years and was disqualified from being a com- pany director for seven years after pleading guilty to three charges of cheating the public revenue and false accounting at Canterbury Crown Court in February last year. His father was jailed for four


years and disqualified from being a company director for 10 years. However, following the trial,


HM Revenue & Customs dis- covered Marcus McKinley had assets totalling more than £770,000. In a confiscation hearing held


at Canterbury Crown Court last month, he was ordered to pay back £770,000 by July 31, 2012, or face a further four years in jail and still owe the money. Investigating officers discov-


ered he owned a property in Spain, a Jaguar X type, aMazda RX8 convertible and had the proceeds from the sale of an- other Spainish site.


WINTER OFFERS


Electrical (NICEIC) test and inspect any domestic properties up to 4 bedrooms for £99.99 (No out houses, shed or external wiring included)


 New consumer units  Rewires


 Fault finding  Inter linked smoke detectors


Fed up with replacing batteries on smoke detectors, Then why not have a detector wired straight into your electrics Supplied and installed £39.99 per detector (includes FREE visual electrical inspection)


01622 623143 E : info@maidstoneservices.co.uk APPROVED INSTALLER W: www.maidstoneservices.co.uk Link House, Knightrider Court, Knightrider St, Maidstone, Kent, ME15 6LU Visit Downs Mail’s website — downsmail.co.uk Town 21


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40