CHINA! Authorities Arrest Hundreds Over RAT MEAT Scam

Chinese authorities have broken a major crime racket that passed off more than $AU1 million in rat as mutton. Police have arrested 900 suspects since January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect, surnamed Wei, had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province. Despite persistent efforts by police, “food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics”.

Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly. In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China :: Read the full article »»»»

Woman Convicted of Trafficking Her Daughter

A Thai woman has received a lengthy jail sentence by a Queensland court after becoming the first person in Australia convicted of trafficking a child for prostitution.

Supreme Court Judge Mr David Boddice described the woman’s behaviour as “shocking and reprehensible,” before sentencing the woman to 9 years jail, with a none parole period of 4 years.

The prosecution had sought a sentence of between 14-16 years, the maximum penalty is 25 years.

The 41-year-old mother of three, who cannot be named - to protect her daughters identity – pleaded guilty to trafficking a child for prostitution in the Supreme Court in Brisbane today, she also pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent treatment of a child :: Read the full article »»»»

UPDATE! Darwin Man Pleads Guilty to Murdering His Neighbour For Interrupting His TV Viewing

The top-end of Australia is a tough, dangerous place, it’s got a reputation as one of the developed world’s last frontiers. Forget the man-eating crocodiles though, the life threatening inhabitants of the Northern Territory – NT – seem to be the locals. Darwin man Darin Clare murdered his neighbour - by setting him on fire – for  interrupting his TV viewing.

Darin Andrew Clare, 37, has entered a guilty plea to murdering 60-year-old Philip John Cure in Darwin’s outer northern suburb of Coolalinga last year. The Northern Territory Supreme Court was told today that at around 8.30pm (local time) last June, Clare became irate at his neighbour for starting his car and running it for a short period while Clare was watching television.

Police said Clare fetched a jerry-can of fuel, jumped over a fence and poured petrol over the victim, Clare then set him alight in a carport. According to police, a female neighbour attempted to assist the victim however he died from his wounds – burns to 90 per cent of his body – the following day in hospital :: Read the full article »»»»

NSW Police Officer Charged with Child Pornography Offences

AUSTRALIA! A police officer based near Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales has been charged with the possession of child pornography and indecent assault. The officer, who is based in a specialist command squad, was arrested yesterday and charged with assault, concealing an indictable offence, and use of the internet to download pornographic material about children.

The 30-year-old officer has been bailed and will appear in the Downing Centre court in Sydney on next month to face the charges. Police say officers from the Professional Standards Command began an investigation in 2012 after a tip-off, the NSW Police Force says the “officers duty status is being reviewed.”

It’s alleged the officer downloaded child pornography from the internet, they say the unrelated indecent assault charge relates to an alleged incident involving an adult. The officer was granted conditional bail.

source: police.nsw

Canberra Man Goes Postal Armed with Chainsaw

A 34-year-old man has been taken into police custody after he entered a Canberra office building brandishing a running chainsaw. Police were called to the scene on Cowlishaw Street, Greenway in Canberra’s south around 3:30 this afternoon after receiving a number of hysterical phonecalls.

Police say the man from Dickson in the city’s north – believed to be an ex-government employee – entered a communal area of the commercial office space and cut through a number of doors with the chainsaw. The premises, across the road from Lake Tuggeranong, house a tax accountant’s office, a podiatrist and a real estate agent.

The building was evacuated as a safety precaution and no-one was hurt. The man was taken into custody and is expected to be charged with burglary-related offences.

UPDATE! Fairfax’s Canberra Times has superlative eyewitness coverage of the crime from a Department of Human Services employee who said she was at the Greenway building when frightened colleagues ran past “yelling and screaming for everyone to get out, I heard the banging of the chainsaw on the glass and it was pretty loud.” the witness told Matthew Raggatt :: Read the full Canberra Times article »»»»

Ebay Australia Helps Snare Welfare Cheats

Data from online trading site eBay.com.au has helped Australia’s Government welfare agency, Centrelink, catch out social security recipients who are not declaring big profits from internet sales. Centrelink has cleverly compared its payment records with the activity of nearly 20,000 people who are running profitable eBay businesses.

The government agency identified 25 people who must repay close to $AU900,000 in welfare payments they weren’t entitled to. Centrelink general manager Hank Jongen said some matters had been referred to the director of public prosecutions, but no charges have yet been laid.

Welfare fraud costs Australia more than $AU600 million a year, the Australian Institute of Criminolgy – AIC – says welfare fraud is difficult to measure because it falls outside the two main crime measures of incidents reported to police and victim experience surveys. The AIC says the UK department responsible for social welfare estimated in 2009 that more than two percent of all benefit expenditures, or £3 billion a year, was fraudulently claimed :: Read the full article »»»»