Category: 0 Archive

A man who attacked a woman in her own home has been sent to prison after the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, referred his original sentence for being too low.

Steven Ridings, 55, attacked, forcibly restrained, and threatened to kill the victim with kitchen knives.

Ridings was originally sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for 2 years at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. He was also required to fulfil rehabilitation and unpaid work requirements, and a restraining order was made.

Today, after the Solicitor General’s reference, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 21 months in prison.

Commenting on the sentence increase, the Solicitor General said:

I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has agreed with my referral and sentenced Mr Ridings’ to immediate custody. His victim went through a terrifying ordeal, and I hope that this decision will bring her some comfort.

The first ever phase of a cholera vaccination campaign will be completed in Yemen today (Tuesday 15 May), as International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt demands full humanitarian access so that even more vulnerable people can receive the vaccinations they need as the rainy season begins.

The looming rains are expected to increase the risk of another life-threatening resurgence of the cholera in the coming weeks. Backed by UK aid and financed by Gavi, the vaccine alliance, doses of the vaccine administered over the last nine days have helped protect 455,000 people from the potentially fatal disease.

This phase aimed to vaccinate everyone over 12-months old in five districts around the city of Aden in the south of Yemen, following the world’s largest cholera outbreak last year, with more than one million suspected cases recorded in the conflict-ravaged country.

With vaccinations being blocked in the north of the country, the International Development Secretary today called for immediate and unfettered humanitarian access to be granted across the whole of Yemen.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

Tragically there were more than one million suspected cases of cholera in Yemen last year alone. With the rainy season now starting, there is a danger that the mass pain and suffering throughout the country could be made even worse by a widespread cholera outbreak.

The UK is at the forefront of the international response in Yemen with the first ever phase of a cholera vaccination campaign completed today, helping protect more than 450,000 men, women and children from this potentially fatal disease.

There are still millions of vulnerable people in Yemen whose lives are at risk because aid is being blocked. Vital medicine, fuel, water and sanitation cannot reach those in dire need. I urge all parties to the conflict to allow the next phase of the vaccination campaign to proceed and to enable full and unhindered access including in the north of the country.

UK aid is also helping to detect early signs of a cholera outbreak, increase awareness of how to prevent the spread of the diseases and improve access to sanitation and clean or chlorinated water.

Notes to editors

The first ever cholera vaccination campaign in Yemen has now taken place, with 455,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine taken from the Gavi-funded global stockpile being administered in the south of the country by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and partners.

The UK is largest donor to Gavi, the vaccine alliance. We contributed 25% of the costs of this vaccination campaign, which has paid for 113,750 doses delivered in the last nine days.

The UK is the fourth largest donor to the humanitarian response in Yemen, providing at least £170 million in the financial year 2018/19.

As penholder for Yemen at the UN Security Council, the UK was responsible for the 15 March Presidential Statement on Yemen which included calls for all parties to the conflict to allow unhindered humanitarian and commercial access for food, fuel and medical supplies throughout the country and compliance with obligations under International Humanitarian Law to reduce the impact on civilians. We also called for the payment of public sector salaries to avoid the collapse of critical services.

Andrew Reed (53) was the director of APR Media, formerly known as APR Video, where he produced and duplicated recordable media since it was first incorporated in 1996.

However, when the company began to make a loss and after 16 years of trading, Andrew Reed instructed insolvency practitioners in October 2012 to place APR Media into creditors’ voluntary liquidation with a total deficiency of just over £800,000.

During the initial investigation into the company’s affairs, the insolvency practitioners could not account for around £125,000 which had been transferred out of APR Media’s accounts just a couple of months before it was placed into liquidation.

Further enquiries by the Insolvency Service found that Andrew Reed fraudulently transferred money out of APR Media in the full knowledge that the business was insolvent in order to avoid paying his creditors.

In August 2012, Andrew Reed paid himself a £100,000 dividend and in September 2012, he transferred £25,250 to M5 Audio & Events, a company where his wife was a director.

Andrew Reed pleaded guilty to two fraud charges and on 27 April 2018 he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years, while also being ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £7,500 in costs.

The sentence was handed down despite the fact that Andrew Reed had paid back over £200,000 to the estate once the wrongful payments had been identified by the insolvency practitioner.

Glenn Wicks, Deputy Chief Investigation Officer of the Insolvency Service, said:

Andrew Reed knew his company was failing and unscrupulously ripped off his creditors by transferring money to his other company. The court has shown anyone doing this stands a serious chance of going to prison.

Notes to editors

APR Video Limited (Company number: 03239812) was incorporated on 20 August 1996 before it changed its name to APR Media in 2006.

On 19 March 2018 Andrew Reed pleaded guilty to two charges contrary to section 207(1)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986 of undertaking transactions in fraud of APR Audio Limited’s creditors at Taunton Crown Court.

Insolvency Service

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

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