LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME 2020

Even the Telegraph are at it - 8 bars?

Gold bars seized at airport from passenger sell at auction for £780,000

 

Google "how to bypass newspaper paywalls". Most guidance from 2019 and older doesn't work anymore as The Telegraph, etc. have closed lots of loopholes (including some not listed online), and only fairly recent suggestions will work. Times are getting hard, what used to take seconds to get for nothing can now take minutes.

 

What about on a forum? I read several online newspapers every day (and I don't pay anything to read them). Here's the Telegraph report referred to above, cover your eyes now.

"EIGHT gold bars which were seized by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from a suspected criminal at Manchester Airport went under the hammer today for almost £780,000 in a first of its kind auction.

Airport security stopped the passenger in November 2018 and called HMRC officers who seized the bars - which the passenger had tried to smuggle in their lunchbox - after believing they were proceeds of crime.

The passenger avoided arrest and was allowed to board their flight but they later appeared at Manchester Magistrates Court where a judge ruled the bars, which weigh 16kg, should be forfeited and auctioned.

The bars were sold for a cumulative price of £779,092 by Wilsons Auctions and the proceeds will be put back into the public purse.

HMRC had never previously auctioned off any gold or precious metals seized from criminals. It also used new civil proceeds of crime powers for the first time to apply for forfeiture of the gold bars.

Gill Hilton, from HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, said: "This is the first time HMRC has used these powers to seize and forfeit a listed asset, and it should act as a deterrent to criminals looking to trade assets such as precious metals.

"If they are the proceeds of crime or intended for unlawful conduct, we now have the powers to take them from criminals and use the money for public services.

"The money raised through the auction will go straight back into the public purse, to be spent on vital services such as hospitals and schools.

"We are determined to cut off the funds that finance serious crime in the UK.

"In the last year alone, HMRC has recovered more than £166 million of illicit proceeds using its civil and criminal proceeds of crime powers."

The total raised from all the lots in the auction was £1.1 million and everything raised will go back into the public purse.

Since the HMRC'S proceeds of crime unit was created three years ago, it has recovered more than £700 million for the public purse, through seizures of a variety of items such as jewellery to luxury cars."

 

Sainsbury's have got worse for not selling any full skimmed milk in the 4 pt containers, have to go over to Morrisons. Morrisons only sells wholemeal loaf from the bakery on Friday or Saturday can't get it at sainsbury's or Tesco's, but can get a white loaf at Tesco on Saturday.

 

I've been looking for another garden arch - to match existing - last year they were around £45 each.

This year - if you can get one - they range from £90 to £150.

Price of materials to build my own arch which is a duplicate of the £150 one - £34.04.

Now I understand that manufacturers/shops need to make a profit and no doubt the manufacturers would have bought the timber far cheaper than I can from Wickes - but £150 - it's a ruddy insult.....

 

Ask your self a few questions, how long will it take for you to make it, will you be paying national insurance, overheads for possibly rent , lighting etc. the list could go on.

And then you need to add the profit that the retailer is making.

I know it sounds a lot, but people shouldn't have to work for peanuts anymore.