Crime

EMERGENCY services had to deal with three roads crashes in as many days.
At just after midnight on Monday, London Ambulance Service were called to the junction of Whitchurch Lane and Howberry Lane in Edgware where a motorcyclist and a car crashed into one another.

TWO men are to face a jury next month over an alleged killing in Edgware eight months ago.
The trial of Jake Lee, 22, of Heathfield Road, Acton, and Louis Tate, 23, of Rosamun Street, Southall, on a charge of murdering Garry (CORR) Frater will begin on February 15 at the Old Bailey in central London. They denied the charge last September.
Mr Frater died on May 30 2009 of multiple injuries sustained in a collision with a car in De Havilland Road, Edgware.
The 32-year-old, known as 'G' or 'G-Man', lived round the corner in Cobham Close with his mother.

A handbag belonging to a 60-year-old woman was snatched from her on Friday (06/11) in Wetheral Drive, Stanmore, near the junction of Coledale Avenue.
The male suspects, wearing dark clothing, approached the victim from behind and grabbed the bag as they ran past.

TWO bosses of the Edgware Safety Depository where a police raid uncovered drugs, cash and guns will appear in front of a judge early next year along with an ex-colleague.
Milton Woolf, 53, of West Heath Drive, Golders Green, north London, Jacqueline Swan, 45, of Hexham Road, Barnet, north London, and Leslie Sief, 61, of Ranulf Road, West Hampton, north west London, were charged with various offences following Operation Rize.
That was where the Metropolitan Police swooped on the secure storage warehouse in High Steet, Edgware, on June 3 last year and came across not only £19.3 million but handguns, ammunition, fraudulent passports, credit cards, cheque books and narcotics such cannabis, crack cocaine and opiates, and three paintings by 17th-century Dutch artists.
Woolf and Swan, two current directors of Safe Deposit Centres, the company that ran Edgware Safe Depository, Hampstead Safe Depository and Park Lane Safe Depository, and ex-director Sief were charged by police following an inquiry lasting 15 months.
The trio have had their court cases committed to Southwark Crown Court in south-east London where a plea and case management hearing will take place on January 6 next year.
Woolf is accused of:
n possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate or authority;
n doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of justice;
n having custody or control of a c-ounterfeit of a currency note with intent;
n conspiracy to fail to disclose to a nominated officer or authorised person;
n failure to disclose;
n concealing criminal property;
n having a false instrument;
n possessing false identity documents;
n possessing articles for use in fraud;
n possessing a prohibited firearm.
Swan faces:
n concealing criminal property;
n having a false instrument;
n possessing false identity documents;
n possessing of articles for use in fraud;
n conspiracy to fail to disclose to a nominated officer or authorised person;
n failure to disclose;
Sief faces a single charge of having custody or control of a counterfeit of a currency note with intent.

ANTI-social behaviour in Canons Park could increase if proposals to relocate community police squads out of the ward become reality, residents in Edgware believe.
Harrow Police confirmed that it is looking at moving the Canons Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) from its base besides Canons Park in Donnefield Avenue, Edgware, to a new SNT base in a mile and a quarter away in Church Road, Stanmore, to be shared with the Stanmore Park SNT.
The Canons Park base would instead be occupied by the Edgware and Belmont SNTs.
Shirley Sackwild, secretary of Canons Park Residents' Association, said shuffling the officers "made no sense whatsoever" and was "an absolutely farce".
She said: "We have seen the problems there have been with vandalism and youths in the park.
"We are put out if our team is being moved out and another team is being moved in because the park isn't strictly speaking their [Belmont's] responsibility and they are not going to be aware of what's going on in the park.
"The explanation given is that the fact that Canons ward is long and thin and being based in Stanmore would make it easier to reach the north of the ward nearer the border with Elstree.
"But the population in the north is much sparser and the bulk of the population is in the south."
Association members are also unhappy at the way the possible relocation of SNTs was disclosed to local residents.
Mrs Sackwild said the plan was raised only under the 'Any Other Business' section of the most recent Canons SNT ward panel meeting by an inspector as if it was a throwaway, inconsequential news item.
Community representatives on the panel believe it should have an agenda item in its own right so they could have a full debate about the proposals and the possible impact on policing.
Mrs Sackwild said: "For something of this importance for the ward panel, it felt as the police were treating the ward panel with contempt.
"To add insult to injury, apparently there was a public meeting of the Stanmore Society on the same night and they were discussing it quite publicly when our ward panel hadn't even had the courtesy of being informed.
"We have now lobbied our MP and want a meeting with the police."
A Harrow Police spokesman said: "We will shortly taking ownership of a new Safer Neighbourhoods base located in Church Road, Stanmore.
"We propose that this will house the Stanmore Park and Canons Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.
"The Lodge in Canons Park would then be used by the Edgware and Belmont Teams.
"We believe that this will benefit the operational policing of these wards and the borough as a whole. We await formal ratification of these moves."
n Only in July did the Observer run a similar story about residents' concern over the relocation of Harrow on the Hill SNT from West Street Police Station in West Street, Harrow on the Hill, to a new base at Kirkland House in Peterborough Road, Harrow.

THE body of an "older man" was found at the scene of a fire in a house in Watling Avenue, Edgware, on Sunday morning.

Ten firefighters - five from Stanmore and five from Mill Hill - made the grisly discovery during the 20 minutes it took to tackle the blaze, which broke out at just before 10.10am.

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Councillors will decide whether to put a curb on the way the Abercorn Arms in Stanmore Hill is run after a neighbour complained disturbances were making her life a misery.

A review of the Stanmore venue's premises licence will be held on Thursday at 7pm after resident Mrs Serra, of Stanmore Hill, formally requested one.

In her submission to the council, she claimed: "The number of incidents of public nuisance and alcohol-related anti-social behaviour in the small hours of the morning have now become a regular feature at this establishment."

Fellow resident Mrs Nathan, of Stanmore Hill, raised concerns about the lack of security staff monitoring the rear car park, the strong food smell and the dumping of empty beer kegs.

Harrow Police's licensing officer Sergeant Carl Davis noted that he has received complains about "shouting and screaming, arguments and other disturbance and disorder" outside the premises and reminds councillors about objections he raised to previous applications from Abercorn Arms' management team.

Evidence from Harrow Council's environmental health team reveals that a warning letter about "loud and unreasonable" noise was sent to the pub after a visit from officials in November. A second letter was despatched in January after more complaints.

The Abercorn Arms is currently allowed to sell alcohol between 10am and midnight Monday to Saturday and until 11.30pm on Sunday.

On November 7, Harrow Council granted the licence holders 10 temporary event notices for dates ranging from November 22 to January that would allow the pub to stay open until 3am the following day.

The premises licence review will be conducted at Harrow Civic Centre before a three-man panel of councillors who can modify the conditions of the licence, prohibit the pub from providing certain activities, remove the designated premises supervisor, suspend the licence for up to three months or even withdraw the licence altogether.

A paedophile who worked at a hospital in Harrow was spared jail this work despite downloading more than 1,000 indecent pictures of children on his laptop.

David Murrell, a former IT consultant at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in Stanmore, was caught with 1,201 images on his computer after police raided his flat - which was on the grounds of the hospital.

Police began a search of the Sir Henry Floyd Court flat after staff became suspicious of the 48-year-old.

Co-workers had caught the pervert looking at adult pornography while at work and an investigation by the police uncovered the haul of indecent photos.

He has since left his job at the hospital.

He walked free from Harrow Crown Court on Monday this week after avoiding a jail term.

He was instead handed three years' community service and ordered to attend an internet sex offender group programme.

Thieves stole two laptops worth £2,000 from a church in Stanmore.

The crooks smashed a window to break into Stanmore Baptist Church, in Abercorn Road, between 10pm on February 5 and 8.40am on February 6.

A car thief stole a red Honda Civic from Beverly Gardens, Stanmore over the weekend leaving broken glass around the space where it had been parked.

The vehicle was taken between 10.30pm on Friday and 1.30am on Saturday from the residential road in Stanmore.

Anyone with information can contact Harrow Police on 020 8423 1212 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.