Spărgătorii români în Marea Britanie, Elveția, etc.

Professional burglar is jailed after his car was stopped in Romania with the boot full of items stolen from British homes

Danny Gallagher For Mailonline

 

1 day ago

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a man wearing glasses and looking at the camera: Claudiu Popa, 23, was jailed for three years and ten months at Taunton Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to commit burglaries

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Claudiu Popa, 23, was jailed for three years and ten months at Taunton Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to commit burglaries

A burglar has been jailed after being intercepted on a Romanian motorway while attempting to make off with a host of stolen goods, picked up across southern England.

A vast collection of goods were found in the packed car, including silverware, jewellery and priceless war medals.

Claudiu Popa, 23, operated within a professional criminal network of thieves who specifically targeted homes in Britain and plotted break-in operations.

Popa was initially stopped for a traffic offence in Romania on February 3, with police officers then going on to discover a haul of silverware, medals and jewellery in the back of his vehicle.

He fled the country after being released on bail but police filed an intelligence report to officers in the UK, who were investigating a series of burglaries.

DNA evidence linked the UK offences to Popa, who was arrested after being tracked to a hotel in Scotland where he had been working.

Avon and Somerset Police said Popa was jailed for three years and 10 months at Taunton Crown Court on Friday, after admitting conspiracy to commit burglaries.

The charges related to offences committed in Tickenham, Nailsea, Dyrham, Chilton Polden, Wedmore and Glastonbury between January 20 and 28 this year.

Related slideshow: Steps to protect your home from burglary(Provided by Photo Services)

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A few good habits and some smart thinking could help keep burglars away. As the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry! Check out these basic steps to get you started.

Pc Mark Pollock said: 'Popa was one of a professional gang of burglars who carried out a series of offences in our force area.

'They would smash windows at the homes they were targeting and steal silverware, jewellery, and in some cases war medals.

'The crime group would courier the stolen property out of the country and into mainland Europe.

'We recovered DNA evidence at some of our burglary scenes and this evidence directly led to the arrest of Claudiu Popa in Scotland, where he was working at a hotel after fleeing Romania.

'In interview, Popa admitted his involvement in multiple burglary offences and said items found in his car had been stolen from homes within our force area.

'We're now in the process of working with officers in Romania to obtain photographs of all the recovered items and reunite as many as we can with their rightful owners, but this is going to be a complex and painstaking process.'

Pc Pollock said there are other suspects linked to the case - two have been arrested for other offences in Switzerland and one is believed to be at large in Romania.

He thanked the National Crime Agency, Interpol, Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police for their help in the investigation.

'Criminals don't respect borders and in this case it's needed a Europe-wide effort to bring this offender to justice,' he said.

The medals recovered from Popa's vehicle are believed to belong to 86-year-old Roy Bowden, who in January spoke of his heartache after realising his priceless family heirlooms had been taken.

'I'm gutted really. I was planning on passing down the medals down to my children and grandchildren,' Mr Bowden told BristolLive in January.

'My aunt's passed down these medals to me and I really wanted to pass them on to my own children and grandchildren.' 

The valuables stolen from retired Royal Mail worker Mr Bowden included medals received by two of his relatives including his great-great-uncle and grandfather.

The priceless haul comprised items such as two Victorian naval silver long service medals and an Egypt medal bar - dated 1881.

Speaking today, Mr Bowden thanked the efforts of police and said: 'I had resigned myself to never seeing my war medals again.

'It might be a bit of a waiting game to get them all back but hopefully the war medals will be returned to me in good time.' 

Sclavia românilor pe plantațiile germane

Romanian farmworkers stuck in Germany during pandemic

Stephanie Höppner

 

19 hrs ago

Anca, a 39-year-old who does not want to be photographed or use her real name for publication, has been waiting for the pay owed to her and other seasonal workers from Romania who had picked strawberries and asparagus at a farm that has gone bankrupt in in the town of Bornheim, near the western German city of Bonn. Now, a solution seems in sight. The Romanian consul has spoken with the workers, given them a meal and some money — and, most importantly, promised to help. "He said that we should trust him," she said, "and not be so worried."

It was Tuesday when Anca found out that the Romanian consul was ready to give his support. She and her colleagues had spent several uncertain days. They demonstrated in the center of Bonn with members of the Free Workers' Union. The anarcho-syndicalist labor organization and other sympathetic Germans have sided with the Romanian workers. Journalists have thronged to the farm, worried neighbors are looking on, and mainstream unions are assessing the confusing situation.

© Provided by dw.com

The workers had been employed by the farm during previous seasons: Anca said the owner had always looked after them well. But, this year, things changed. The farm is now being supervised by a trustee. "We didn't know that the company was bankrupt when we came," Anca said. The employees traveled to the farm and were called on to work to ensure a good harvest for any new potential investor.

But the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the problems. Restaurants and hotels stayed closed, meaning that the demand for asparagus dropped dramatically. The farm's creditors decided to stop the asparagus harvest, while the picking of strawberries was reduced — along with the numbers of workers.

Dramatic consequences

Even though she had come from Romania on a contract for three months starting at the beginning of March, Anca was one of the workers cut. She and other seasonal workers at the farm say they have not received full pay for their labor so far. "I'm still down about €1,200 ($1,315)," she said. Others have told her that they have only received €150 — or, in some cases, €5 — for a whole month's work. To make things worse, the employers have deducted more money than expected for accommodation and food, the workers say.

"The rice was still half-frozen and not cooked through," Anca said. "Some of the salami for breakfast was off. We weren't allowed to eat leftovers in the kitchen; there was always just one portion for each person." It is difficult for the workers to do their own shopping: They are housed in the middle of nowhere — near a sewage treatment plant and far away from any supermarket. She said the prefab huts that the employer had provided were acceptable, if a bit old. "It's not like home," she said. The high heaps of garbage piled up outside the huts made that clear.

Read more: 5 million coronavirus cases worldwide recorded by May 21

Workers need every penny they earn. "Many of us have families, children, debts," Anca said. She has four children and other family members to provide for.

Many lack the money to travel home. Romanian Labor Minister Violeta Alexandru, who came to Germany to see the situation for herself on Wednesday, has promised to help out. That assistance could prove urgent: It is not clear how long the workers will be permitted to stay in the lodgings provided for them by the farm. There are rumors that electricity and water will soon be cut off to force out the harvest hands who have nowhere else to go but are no longer employed.

Mâncați, mâncați... ȘI de dracu o sa dați!

Covrigarul șef arată gaura, pensionarilor.

Spune-o clar că nu sunt bani! Nu te comporta ca o muierușcă! Ați venit pe cai mari și o să plecați, cât de curând, pe măgăruși!

Șoc total pentru pensionari! Ce se întâmplă cu banii bătrânilor? Orban a spus clar

Autor: Gabriel Zamfirescu21 mai 2020

Șoc total pentru toți pensionarii din România. S-a aflat ce se întâmplă cu banii acestora. Deși se spune clar în lege că din septembrie vor avea pensiile mai mari cu 40%, premierul Ludovic Orban a dat un mesaj clar.

Guvernul are ca prioritate plata pensiilor şi salariilor şi va creşte pensiile, dar numai după o analiză foarte serioasă, în funcţie de posibilităţile reale, pentru a avea garanţia că acestea vor putea fi plătite, a declarat, miercuri, premierul Ludovic Orban.

Șoc total pentru pensionari

„Noi am prevăzut în bugetul de stat sumele necesare pentru asigurarea creşterii pensiilor, vom creşte pensiile, dar decizia de creştere a pensiilor nu poate fi luată decât după o analiză foarte serioasă. Noi ne dorim creşterea pensiilor, dar în acelaşi timp vrem să avem garanţia că pensiile vor putea fi plătite, pentru că drumul spre iad este pavat de bune intenţii.

Dacă tu creşti un venit public fără să ai resursele financiare şi fără să ai garanţia că ai capacitatea să plăteşti fie salariile, fie pensiile, după prognozele pe care nu le facem numai noi, ci şi alte instituţii financiare, rişti să faci numai rău. După şase luni, în conformitate cu legea responsabilităţii fiscal-bugetare, vom avea raportul semestrial privind evoluţia economiei.

De asemenea, vom face prognozele şi vom consulta toate prognozele făcute de Comisia Europeană sau de alte instituţii (…) şi vom lua decizia în funcţie de posibilităţile reale, efective pe care le vom avea”, a afirmat Orban, la Realitatea Plus.

El a adăugat că prioritatea este plata salariilor şi pensiilor, iar oricine critică măsurile Guvernului este „un inamic” al nivelului de viaţă al oamenilor.

„Oricum, cu siguranţă, avem ca prioritate plata pensiilor şi salariilor. Acest lucru este fundamental. Credeţi-mă, este un efort care nu este foarte uşor în condiţiile economice date, cu atât mai mult cu cât vor fi necesare resurse financiare suplimentare pentru a putea susţine economia şi pentru a putea asigura capitalurile necesare în economie pentru a avea o revenire cât mai rapidă în economie şi chiar o dezvoltare, sunt necesare resurse suplimentare.

Aş mai spune un lucru: oricine critică măsurile pe care le-am luat şi mai ales măsurile pe care trebuie să se implementăm este un inamic al vieţii, al sănătăţii oamenilor şi, mai ales, al nivelului de viaţă al oamenilor. Dacă nu ţinem sub control epidemia, nici economia nu va putea reveni cu viteză la normalitate”, a susţinut premierul