English Channel plane crash: Hunt for pilot underway near Guernsey
By Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 4:28 AM on 14th November 2011
A millionaire businessman was feared dead last night after the light plane he was piloting crashed in the English Channel.
Ian Dickinson, 79, sank beneath the waves despite his wife Ann-Marie’s efforts to pull him from the wreckage.
Mrs Dickinson, also 79, survived after being plucked from the sea by a passing ship. Last night she was released from hospital after being treated for hypothermia.
Mystery: A millionaire businessman was feared dead last night after the light plane he was piloting crashed in the English Channel. The aircraft was believed to be a Piper Archer from Alderney Flying Club (file picture)
In a separate tragedy, a businessman and his friend died when their helicopter plummeted to the ground in a ball of flames on Majorca.
Mark Blaver-Mann and Alistair Evans, both 53, had been flying in what were described as ‘perfect’ conditions.
Mr and Mrs Dickinson were travelling home to Alderney in the Channel Islands from an airfield in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, when their hired single-engined Piper Archer plane crashed at 3.50pm on Saturday.
The two-seater plane capsized after ditching in water 25 miles off the coast of Guernsey.
Separate tragedy: Mark Blaver-Mann, pictured with his wife Lindsey, died in a helicopter crash in Majorca on Saturday
Christelle Haar, from the Maritime Prefecture in Cherbourg, France, which helped with the rescue operation, said Mrs Dickinson tried to get her husband out of the cockpit.
But she added: ‘She had to leave her husband and get out of the plane and save herself. She was very lucky. She was only a few minutes in the water before she was picked up by a passing Russian cargo ship.
‘There was no sign of her husband or the plane which had sunk.
‘She did not suffer any injuries but was suffering from shock. She was airlifted to Cherbourg and treated in hospital for hypothermia.’
Miss Haar said that the cause of the crash was being investigated by French police. The French authorities called off the search yesterday.
Crash: The Ministry of Defence confirmed the private plane ditched into the English Channel 25 miles north-west off the coast of Guernsey
The couple, who have three grown-up children, are originally from Winsford, Cheshire, where Mr Dickinson was the director of several property companies which built family homes.
Norman Howson, 64, of Bolton, a former director of one of Mr Dickinson’s companies, described him as ‘a charming gentleman’. ‘He was a lovely chap to work for,’ he said. ‘He used to commute to Cheshire from Alderney two or three times a week.
‘He was very active, always going to the gym, and did not look his age.’
The Ministry of Defence said the French authorities took the lead in the rescue mission as the incident occurred in their territorial waters.
Mr Blaver-Mann’s helicopter had been in a hangar at Bournemouth International Airport for most of the summer before being flown to Majorca in the last month.
Sebastian Xamena, who witnessed the accident on Saturday, said: ‘He was flying back and forth in the area as if he wanted to land.
Search: HMS Tyne (pictured) has been drafted in to search for the aircraft
‘He was flying very low, very close to the pine trees, and suddenly it started to spin round, then it fell. There was a huge explosion and we saw a massive plume of smoke.’
Mr Blaver-Mann, a father of two from Poole, Dorset, used to run the company Powermann, which specialises in high voltage projects and maintenance.
He sold it several years ago and had since devoted more time to his hobbies, which included yachting, flying and touring in a large, U.S.-style camper van.
Mr Evans ran two upmarket restaurants in Dorset.
Glamour model benefit cheat fiddled £7,000 benefits while working for a raunchy television channel
By Chris Slack
Last updated at 6:49 AM on 13th September 2011
A glamour model who illegally claimed more than £7,000 in benefits while presenting raunchy television channels has been fined.
Dionne Stenner, 29, from Hove, East Sussex, raked in thousands of pounds working under the stage name Morgan James while fronting X-rated programmes on the Playboy and TVX channels.
But at the same time she was claiming housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support.
Fraud: Dionne Stenner was fined £1,315 after she falsely claimed £7,000 in benefits while working as a presenter and model for adult television channels
Today she admitted failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions and Brighton and Hove City Council about the change in her financial circumstances.
She was fined £1,315 and ordered to pay costs.
Brighton and Hove Magistrates’ Court heard Stenner received up to £350 for each night she presented, and had earned £18,000 between March and October last year.
Prosecutor Jessica Clarke said she illegally claimed a total of £7,782 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support during this time.
The court heard that her crimes only came to light after she was shopped by her former boyfriend.
Wearing a patterned jumper and black leggings, Stenner sat in the dock as the evidence was read out.
Miss Clarke said: ‘Miss Stenner was interviewed and she fully accepted that she hadn’t declared while she was working.
‘She said she knew it was wrong but needed every penny to pay off debts.’
Wrongful claims: Stenner illegally obtained a total of £7,782 in housing benefit, council tax benefit
Ed Fish, defending, said Stenner’s work had been occasional but she made a full admission to investigators when it came to light.
He added that she has no previous convictions.
Outside court, the model said she had not tried to hide her crimes and intended to pay back what was owed.
She said: ‘I’m mortified by it all.
‘I come from a nice family and this is something that I regret. I have not tried to hide anything.’
Model: Stenner, who used the stage name Morgan James, received up to £350 for each night she presented, and had earned £18,000 between March and October last year
She said her glamour work included posing topless in front of the camera ‘while talking on the phone to men’. She added she worked for channels including Television X and Playboy.
According to an online profile, Stenner describes herself as an ‘experienced model and TV presenter’ who is happy to work in all locations.
She writes: ‘Although most of my experience has been in glamour, which I love, I would also like to try the more commercial side and fashion and fitness modelling.’
On her Facebook profile, Stenner says she is a TV presenter and model at Playboy TV and says she also worked at Bluebird TV, another adult channel.
Incoming search terms:
- morgan james model (65)
- dionne stenner (18)
Categories: News Tags: 7000, benefit, benefits, Channel, Cheat, fiddled, glamour, MODEL, raunchy, TELEVISION, Working
Channel 4′s Dispatches to name drug shame player on cocaine tonight
- Failed drug tests were never made public by FA
- FA will wait to see programme before responding
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:44 PM on 12th September 2011
A top Premier League footballer who tested positive for cocaine is set to be named tonight in a Channel 4 investigation into drug use among soccer stars.
The player, who will be exposed in the channel’s Dispatches, completed a ‘multi-million-pound’ transfer without the buying club knowing he had tested positive for cocaine.
The sportsman is among dozens of English professional footballers who will be named and shamed for failing out-of-competition drug tests that have never been made public by the FA.
Documentary: Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand missed a drugs test in 2003. He is not believed to be featuring in Channel 4′s Dispatches
None of those named have failed tests for what would be considered performance-enhancing drugs. But, dating back to 2003, the UK anti-doping agency have caught up to 43 professional footballers using cocaine, ecstasy or cannabis in out-of-competition testing.
The programme also makes much of 240 ‘abandoned’ tests between April 2007 and August 2010, with testers arriving at training grounds to discover that the players targeted were not there. But these cases are not comparable with the Rio Ferdinand episode – who was banned for eight months after missing a drug test in 2003 – as the clubs and players would not have known the testers were coming on that day.
Exposé: Dozens of English professional footballers will be named and shamed for failing out-of-competition drug tests that have never been made public by the FA
The FA will wait to see the programme before responding but last night Wembley officials were understood to be disappointed because they consider their testing to be more extensive than in any other sport in the country.
Football pays for more than 60 per cent of tests on athletes in the UK, and their policy of protecting the identity of players who fail out-of-competition tests for recreational drugs is not in breach of any World Anti-Doping Agency regulations. WADA don’t even demand that athletes are tested out of competition for recreational drugs.
Those who fail tests for these sorts of drugs in competition are named by the FA. But the policy of protecting those exposed this evening — the FA consider it better to treat and educate them privately — is questioned by the head of WADA, David Howman.
Asked whether the FA should disclose how many players are tested or how many tests take place, he replied: ‘The answer to that is why not? If you don’t then you are susceptible to an allegation that you’re hiding something.
‘They’re saying they haven’t got a doping problem because there are not many positive tests. I think the answer to that is: don’t we need to conduct better research to see what the prevalence of doping is? Until we are satisfied by the use of all the gathering of evidence I don’t think we’re in a position to say (there is not a drug problem in English football).’
The programme also features a former member of Chelsea’s staff criticising the use of intravenous iron infusions and reveals evidence of former Chelsea and Manchester United doctors attending a clinic which uses Actovegin — a treatment made from calf’s blood not licensed in North America but permitted in Europe. It is not on WADA’s banned list.
In a statement to Dispatches, the FA said: ‘The FA operates a comprehensive anti-doping programme which is the largest of any sport in the UK. The FA go beyond the WADA Code by proactively testing all samples for social drugs, irrespective of whether the tests are conducted in or out of competition.’
- Dispatches: The Truth About Drugs In Football, tonight 8pm, C4
National TV bidder Channel 6 pledges bigger budget than Channel 5
National TV bidder Channel 6 pledges bigger budget than Channel 5
Company would deliver ‘biggest boost to UK’s independent production sector since launch of Channel 4′ Channel 6, the company bidding to run the proposed national TV network that underpins Jeremy Hunt’s plan to deliver local news, claims it will have a bigger annual programming budget than Channel 5. Run by former senior Trinity Mirror executive Richard Horwood, Channel 6 is so far the only …
Chinese website selling iPad2 cases, ordered to remove ads
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Microsoft and Nokia â better for everyone
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Pyle PLMRKT4A 4 Channel Waterproof MP3/ iPod Amplified 6.5” Marine Speaker System
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Product Description
This Pyle marine speaker system has everything you need to blast tunes at sea! It comes with two pairs of 6.5” two-way speakers, 4-channel waterproof power amp, waterproof iPod/MP3 adaptor, and a waterproof poly bag. The speakers are constructed from high quality polypropylene cones, boasting 200 watts peak power and a white plastic enclosure. The PLMRMP3A amp pushes 200 watts max on each channel, so you know your speakers are well-matched. The amp also includes a… More >>
Pyle PLMRKT4A 4 Channel Waterproof MP3/ iPod Amplified 6.5” Marine Speaker System
