Daniel Boffey

4 days ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

More than 130 official suppliers of vehicle number plates are willing to sell cloned versions that could thwart police and avoid congestion charges, an investigation by expert government advisers has claimed. The alleged abuse of the system is described by the academics as a risk to law enforcement, road safety and the country’s critical national infrastructure.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

A former aide to the de factor leader of Georgia is at risk of torture, his lawyers have said, after he was arrested and deported to Tbilisi from his place of hiding in Dubai. Giorgi Bachiashvili fled Georgia after falling out with the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chair of the country’s ruling party, for whom he worked for more than a decade, overseeing his personal finances.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

A police force that admits negligently breaching the anonymity of an alleged victim of child sexual abuse has been accused of “victim shaming” after citing her subsequent public campaigning as reason for reduced compensation. The identity of Heidi Clutterbuck, 53, was revealed in error to a witness by a West Mercia police detective in 2015 as the officer carried out an investigation into her claims of being abused by her late brother.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

A proposal by the Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates for an independent body to oversee future public sector compensation schemes is being “worked on” in government, after criticism of the treatment of victims of scandals. Whitehall sources said a model was in planning in light of the traumatic experiences of those who had struggled to secure redress after scandals such as Horizon, contaminated blood and Windrush.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Giorgi Bachiashvili is on the run. The urbane 39-year-old slipped a surveillance team two months ago to flee his home in Tbilisi, Georgia, midway through a trial at which he was destined to be sentenced to 11 years in jail. An Interpol red notice has been requested by the Georgian authorities asking law enforcement to find and arrest him over a $42m crime, and he further claims to have been informed by the intelligence services of two countries that there is an active plot to kill him.