| MURDER OF LAND RIGHTS ACTIVIST - INDIA
By madurai collective 18/07/2002 At 16:52 Ms. Navleen Kumar, who worked for the land rights of adivasis/tribals in Nallasopara on the outskirts of Mumbai (Bombay, India) was stabbed to death on the terrace of her flat at Nallasopara on 19 June 2002. Navleen, 54, had been fighting against the "builders and land mafia", a network of developers, builders, bureaucrats, politicians and criminal elements, who, over the last 20-25 years, had been usurping tribal land by terror, force and fraud. Through her dedication she had been able to disclose old records, file affidavits and restore the land rights to the
tribals - the original owners.
Hence, Navleen's work brought her in direct conflict with the "builders and land mafia". Three months ago, she was threatened at gunpoint at Nallasopara railway station. She had also been threatened on the premises of the Thane district court.
Several activists have expressed their outrage over the murder of Navleen. In a joint statement, they demanded a high-powered committee to investigate the large-scale grabbing of adivasis/ tribals land by the "builders and land mafia".
Since Navleen's death, several other fellow activists have received death threats for speaking out on the killing and for their continued work on behalf of the land rights of advivasis/tribals. For example, the Times of India reported on 1 July 2002, that another 45-year-old fellow activist had since also received death threats and the complaints regarding the death threats has been filed with the Director General of Police and the Chief Minister of the Maharashtra.
*** Please respond before 31 July 2002
ACTION REQUESTED
Please write letters expressing your concern about the brutal killing of Navleen Kumar. Request the authorities to expedite investigations in the case, charge the culprits and ensure protection of all activists who strive to bring justice especially among the powerless, particularly those working for the land rights of adivasis/tribals.
Send letters to:
Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Vilasrao Deshmukh, 6th floor, Mantralaya, Mumbai 400 001, INDIA
Send copies to:
1. Mr Raghuvanshi, Inspector General of Police,Thane Rural, Thane
2. Dist Collector of Thane, Dist. Collectorate Office,Thane Dist.
3. Thesildar, Thesildar’s Office, Opp. Vasai Court, Quilla Bunder Road, Vasai Fort
4. Maharashtra State Women’s Commission, Mezannine Flr, MAHADA Bldg,
Kalanagar, Bandra , Mumbai 400051
5.Mr Manikrao. G Thakare, Minister of Home State-Rural,Mumbai –3
SAMPLE LETTER
We are deeply shocked to hear about the brutal murder of Ms. Navleen Kumar, a adivasis/tribals land rights activist who strove to the very end to uphold the land rights of the tribals in Thane district. She was stabbed 19 times on the terrace of her building in the early hours of the morning of 19 June 2002.
We are aware that Navleen Kumar had toiled tirelessly towards a just cause in spite of receiving threats and warnings from the land mafia in the recent past.
We therefore request that:
* the investigation into her murder be quickly expedited and the culprits charged;
* assure protection of Navleen's children and family;
* provide protection to all activists involved in the land rights of adivasis/tribals, particularly those who are wrongfully implicated or arrested under false complaints.
* case to be transferred to the CBI or CBI be appointed for investigation
We are already aware of death threats towards other activists involved in similar fight for land rights. We believe that it is the responsibility of your office and the police to protect these people and hope you will accord
them the necessary.
BACKGROUND
Ms. Navleen Kumar, who worked to restore the land rights of adivasis/tribals in Nallasopara on the outskirts of the Mumbai had successfully protected and restored adivasi land through sustained legal interventions. Her crusade started after the death of her journalist-husband Murli Kumar under mysterious circumstances eight years ago.
Not only did Navleen Kumar help the tribals protect their land she also taught them a new way of life. None of the past five generations attended school but the children are doing it now after being influenced by Ms. Kumar. She was also instrumental in organising the local street vendors and street children.
The Land Issue:
Despite social activists trying to raise awareness on the issue, over 3,500 acres of tribal and non-tribal land on the outskirts of Mumbai have so far been "grabbed" by the "builders and land mafia". Unscrupulous developers and builders are known to have transferred land from local tribals using threats, violence and other illegal means.
According to the activists, many buildings in Mumbai were built on land allegedly stolen from tribals and native folk like the Kolis (fisher folk). According to local human rights groups, those who fight to protect tribal ownership of the land faced threats and terror. There are cases of people being stabbed and shot for not heeding the threats. A number of activists have been murdered over the years, while others had been implicated in false court cases.
Recent years have shown a definite pattern emerging on the land scenario. Due to the burgeoning population of Mumbai, the city expanded northward into the inner as well as northern suburbs. The "builders and the land mafia" who once terrorized and grabbed land from the rightful owners in Andheri and Goregaon (both suburbs of northern Mumbai) have moved further into the forests of Borivali (suburb of northern Mumbai) and beyond in the Vasai-Virar belt in Thane district. In the Vasai-Virar belt, the occupants of the land are the tribals/adivasis.
The Motive for the Murder?
As reported in the Times of India on 28 June, '(t)he brutal murder of veteran tribal activist Navleen Kumar on the 19th of this month must have come as a big relief to the Mumbai land mafia. For Navleen was more than an occasional gadfly in the city's lucrative land grabbing racket. She had waged, over the past many years, several successful legal battles on behalf of tribals whose land had been appropriated by the mafia. There was another, more urgent, reason for silencing her, though. For just a day before her death, charges were framed in the case of builder Suresh Dube's murder against dreaded Mumbai gangster Bhai Thakur, and four others, based on Navleen's testimony. Considering that this is the only case the police have managed to register against Bhai Thakur (in spite of his notorious land grabbing), and it largely hinged on prime witness Navleen, it might well be assumed that the gangster has a good chance of walking the streets again."
A local court on 8 July remanded to judicial custody four of Bhai Thakur's henchmen arrested in connection with the Navleen Kumar murder case. They were arrested on 30 June eleven days after the Ms. Kumar's death. Till now, the police were unable to collect material or evidence to show the involvement of the accused in the crime.
Another possible motive for the murder concerns a plan to beautify a lake on a 40-acre plot along a section of railway track, half a kilometre from Nallasopara railway station. Two months earlier, Navleen Kumar stepped in to oppose the local municipal council's plan to beautify the lake. As part of the beautification scheme, a 30-foot-wide tract on the edge of the lake was reclaimed. Locals perceived this as a ploy by the ruling clique in the council to grab land and set up shops. Ms. Kumar's intervention put a halt to the plan in which the henchmen of Bhai Thakur's gang were also allegedly involved.
Yours sincerely,
Pamela Fernandes
Hotline India-Mumbai
Thank You for Your Continued Support.
Hotline is a service for Justice and Peace irrespective of class, race, religion, culture and political affiliation. We issue "Urgent appeals" (UAs) on request from our network.
 Email:: huright@vsnl.com
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The New Zealand Prime Minister's "Fraudulent Painting Forgery Story."  http://www.tv3.co.nz/news/index.cfm?news_category_id=5 by Honeypottrap. 12:12am Sun Jul 14 '02 It is about time the Canadian company which ownes TV3, up dated its story on PAINTAGATE. Photo of Helen [alias Clark] Davis the New Zealand Prime Minister. + Henry van Dijk Helen Clark's 'New Zealand Prime Minister' victim at home in the world of art fakes. 20.04.2002 Arts editor LINDA HERRICK looks into the history of the man who bought the PM's fake. Henry van Dijk, "a bent tulip muncher" the man who has made international headlines over his "Helen Clark painting is no stranger to the fine art of fakery. In the late 1990s, he ran a business in Auckland importing resin replicas of ancient artefacts. In an interview with the Herald on February 12, 1997, he said, "There is a huge market in copies. And there are a lot of people who can paint well - but not many who paint well out of their own imagination and mind." In 1999, Mr van Dijk paid $1000 for a painting signed by Helen Clark, then Opposition Leader, at a charity auction. He has sent it back into auction after discovering it was the work of Lauren Fouhy, a friend of one of the Prime Minister's staff. The revelation of the "fake Clark" has featured in newspapers and television news bulletins worldwide, causing the Prime Minister huge embarrassment. "I've had a lot of publicity over the past week and I'm going to work it out right through to the end," says Mr van Dijk, a former naturopath who runs a water purification business among other ventures and describes himself as a "passionate animal protector, activist, and welfarist. He imported the replica Greek and Egyptian artefacts and antiquities into New Zealand from 1996 to 1999, buying them from a Dutch archaeologist in Germany who cast the pieces in resin then painted, chipped and dented them to look like the real thing. Items such as a head of Hippocrates sold for $740. He insists there is a difference between that practice and Helen Clark's charitable efforts. "When I deal in replicas I know it's a replica and we tell people." He admits that the publicity has been a bonus for him. He is writing a self-help manual "for resingled people, who want to be recycled, which he intends to publish himself. "It's a worldwide book - New Zealand is going to be peanuts ... I was in the Dutch papers and I've been on the BBC twice. I have not done too badly out of this. It is fun to me. I'm giving the politicians the message they can't get away with dishonesty." Mr van Dijk says he has an art retail diploma gained in 1984 in the Netherlands. He says the three-year diploma is a standard professional document required for any retailer in that country. He came to New Zealand in 1968 aged 20 and worked as marketing manager for Watties until 1971. He returned to the Netherlands in 1973 and came back to New Zealand in 1987. Mr van Dijk said he did not buy the Clark painting because he liked it but as an investment "because of the name only. "It could have been any kind of painting. Helen Clark was up-and-coming in politics, had been in politics a long time, who became Prime Minister ... The reason I'm getting as much mileage out of this as possible is I feel we should give them [politicians] a hard time if they've been lying and cheating." Ironically, Mr van Dijk said his father, an art collector, was approached during World War II by the famous Dutch faker of Vermeers, Han van Meegeren, and asked to accept a painting in return for five loaves of bread. "He refused the work because it was a forgery but gave van Meegeren the bread. But after the war, you know what? That same work sold for around $300,000." 
The New Zealand Prime Minister's Cheating.
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Saturday April 20, 2002 at 03:29 AM
"Swindler or Forging" Use the correct words JOHN ROUGHAM. Will the "corrupt police" charge Helen "Clark" Davis or find a way to slide around it. Many of you in jail will be wondering.
+
Dialogue: Clark's deception reveals deep, abiding cynicism.
By JOHN ROUGHAN
It really was a shocker. As my wife remarked after reading the story, it is not as if she simply put her name on somebody else's painting, she actually commissioned it.
This was no momentary lapse of judgment; it was a deliberate, patterned response to a request for personal work. When a second bogus Helen Clark turned up this week, the Prime Minister admitted she had probably done it half a dozen times.
For all that, I do not believe she was, or is, intentionally dishonest. Rather, she honestly believed dishonesty was standard practice. I suspect we are dealing not so much with deceit as something possibly just as bad for someone in that position - a deeply ingrained, all-pervasive cynicism.
When she said "other politicians have done it" and "no one takes these things very seriously" I am sure she believed it. Should she come across a competent piece in a charity sale I can hear a dry chuckle and a muttered comment, "I wonder who really did that?"
Cynicism is highly contagious. Even now, there are probably people who have never had reason to doubt the authenticity of celebrities' contributions, yet wonder whether Helen Clark was right.
Well, the organisation she was trying to help was surprised to learn this week how she had gone about it. And art auctioneer Dunbar Sloane told the Herald that in 35 years he had never known a celebrity offering not to be genuine.
No other politician, past or present, has come forth to support Helen Clark's contention that others have done what she did.
You can marshal all the evidence available and still cynicism has an easy, poisonous plausibility. The only good antidote, I find, is to consider what cynics say about something you know. They have plenty to say about what happens in my industry and invariably they are wrong.
Cynicism is dangerous in a Prime Minister, particularly an absolutist leader like this one, not so much because it is unattractive but because it breeds assumptions that can lead the Government astray. What part it played, we might now wonder, in its failure to take the Singapore Airlines offer for Air New Zealand-Ansett at face value last year.
Some interesting material has emerged on that subject over the past week or two. I suspect Helen Clark is tired of reading that she is intelligent. When did journalists become arbiters of intelligence? The answer, possibly, is when they found themselves reporting a Prime Minister who thinks and speaks much as they do.
Like them, Helen Clark is a graduate of the liberal arts and retains a set of interests, values, viewpoints, and inhibitions they share. She has a candour that is appealing and a complete lack of airs, which is almost unprecedented in Prime Ministers of my observation. She seems to be largely without conceit and suffers from no sense of self-importance.
But that impression may have to be altered after this phoney art business.
Dunbar Sloane said the contributions of political leaders to charity art auctions were usually simple concoctions. 'You don't buy it as investment art but as a bit of fun.'
Why didn't Helen Clark enter the exercise in that spirit? Partly, she says, because she was too busy, and because she is no good at it.
She said she suspected the painting done in her name was awful. "If I'd done it myself it would have been equally awful if not more awful." On radio, I think she was more candid, conceding she cannot draw to save herself.
But the point is, her ability should not have mattered. I think a fierce ego played its part in her downfall, too. She could not bring herself to sit down one Saturday and smear some paint on the framed paper the animal welfare group had given her, lest the result was embarrassing.
She could not even bring herself to enter the "five-minute doodles" to be auctioned by Ponsonby School. Somebody on her staff did a quick sketch of the Beehive and she signed it. That fooled the school, the auctioneer, and the person who paid $1300 in good faith.
All of this happened when she was Opposition leader. She is an immeasurably more secure personality now. But I wonder even now whether she really recognises the error, or regrets the political embarrassment.
She has suspended several ministers merely for political embarrassment. Even unproven accusations, she argued, could affect their credibility in their particular portfolio. She would have sacked any other Minister of Arts, Culture, and Heritage by now. Perhaps she imagines a lack of personal artistic talent is somehow unbecoming in that role. If so, she should be told that in all the arts, plagiarism is infinitely worse.
A few weeks ago, I attended a dinner at which the University of Auckland recognised "distinguished alumni" such as Human Rights Commissioner Roslyn Noonan and Film Commission chief executive Ruth Harley. Dr Harley, I think it was, gave an acceptance speech glowing with gratitude to "Helen" for at last giving the arts a sense of pride and value and a Prime Minister who believed in them.
I wonder how the creative community feels now. The mark of intelligence, since we are now the arbiters of it, is to know the limits of your knowledge. And, beyond that, to avoid the pitfalls of ego and cynicism.
We are led, I think, by somebody who usually knows her limitations but has to prove herself large enough to let them be exposed for public amusement.
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TO SOME DOG ANY DOG WILL DO, IF IT GETS ONE HIGHER IN POLITICS. By Viktor. Saturday April 20, 2002 at 03:21 AM THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY. IS THERE ANYTHING FURTHER TO UNCOVER? ++++++ IF I HAD NOT GONE INTO POLITICS, I WOULD NOT HAVE MARRIED. New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark who will not use her married surname has revealed her marriage is a necessary evil which would help put an end to rumours she was a barren lesbian, according to a newly published biography. Millions of queers/poofs are married to women, to try and hide what they are. Clark, 51 viewed as one of the most popular leaders the country has had, is married to public health academic Dr Peter Davis, The austere states woman has rarely let people see into her personal life. Friend and adviser Brian Edwards a pot smoker from way back have been allowed access for the biography. Helen: Portrait of a Prime Minister, which has hit the Shelves. Clark, Labour Prime Minister since 1999, has been a major player in political life here since winning Auckland's Mount Albert electorate in 1981. Edwards notes that even winning the party nomination had been a major achievement as she had been hampered by rumours that she was a lesbian. It was a difficult campaign, said Clark in the book. As a single woman, I was really hammered. I was accused of being a lesbian, of living in a commune, having friends who were Trotskyites and gays, of being unstable and unable to settle to anything. New in parliament, she remembers one of her own partes senior members referred to her as a 'barren lesbian and claimed that Davis was also gay.' There were rumours, Edwards writes, that her real lover was Catherine Tigard, who later becomes governor-general. Senior party officials finally prevailed on her and Davis, who expressed indifference to the ceremony, to marry. I did not mind one way or the other too much, he told Edwards, but I do not think Helen was too keen. We were involved in this larger game of politics. Helen is strong willed and her whole life has required her to bend that will at certain times. In these things, I go along with Helen. If Helen wants to do it, I will do it. Clark said she cried over getting married, calling it a necessary evil. The rival Right Wing National Party continues to push rumours over the marriage, she said. They are relentlessly, personally nasty. The one thing I hate is the National Party. I think they are loathsome people. I do. On the 1999 elections, her then rival, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, was illustrated as a mother-of- two. Clark's lack of children was made into an issue. Comment: Never ever trust any Politician, but watch what they do. 'True figures do not lie, but lairs figure, and actually tell the truth if it suites their purpose or are caught out. An old saying. 'To some dog any dog will do, and most woman the same' and even marring a future Prime Minister.' I understand this is the government that was to expunge criminal records for minor convictions after 20 'good' years. Find Helen Clark at  pm@ministers.govt.nz
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This is fresh from eyes at the "i'd rather be naked than wear G A P" (the GAPtivist-action June 25/02). So, for those who are interested in what is going on in G8-Kananaskis, I was at the Gap march this afternoon on 8th ave and witnessed a great turn out. There was, as a result of lunch-hour traffic, many different people present(activists, police, business-people, capitalists, journalists, union memebers, etc). I was happy to see no one interested in violence or giving reason for police intervention. I over-heard the police tracking certain "disruptive-looking" people but other than that everything was reasonably calm. I hope that there continues to be a great turnout and let everyone's voice be heard.!Make a rating on this comment. 
Girls do have fun in Canada.
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"Corrupt Police Actioning Revenge." To hell with the workers jobs.
++++++
SEX CASE MAN REVEALED.
By MARTIN VAN BEYNEN.
The High Court has lifted the order suppressing the name of a Christchurch businessman convicted of trying to buy sex from a 12-year-old girl. He is Craig Steven Mackay, 37, a director and part owner of the business South Island Bearing Distributors Ltd, a business employing about four people.
Mackay was targeted in a police sting in April and May last year in which a policewoman posed as a mother who was prepared to let her 12-year-old daughter be used for sex. The company director was convicted of the offence on January 28 after a defended hearing in December last year.
At sentencing Judge Christopher Somerville fined Mackay $2500 and suppressed his name on grounds, he presented a low risk of reoffending and publication of his name would jeopardise the employment of his staff.
The police appealed the decision after the Solicitor-General reviewed the file. Justices Panckhurst and Chisholm, in their reserved judgment released yesterday, said that although Mackay might present a lesser risk than other offenders, the risk existed and "given the serious nature of the offence the presumption in favour of open reporting should have prevailed.
KBS Bakeries owner Kim Buckley, who was one of three Christchurch businessmen, including car dealer Rick Armstrong, wrongly identified as the offender by rumours circulating in Christchurch last month, welcomed the decision.
Mr Buckley said he felt "a bit sorry" for Mackay, but lifting of the suppression removed the risk of others being wrongly maligned and showed businesspeople could not claim special protection.
Mackay had gone to ground yesterday. There was no sign of him at his business in Sydenham or at his home in Bromley, which are about 100m from the grounds of Bromley School. A security person met media personnel outside the door of Mackay's business premises to say staff did not want to comment and that Mackay was not there. The business was open.
Mackay's Auckland business partners declined to comment although one indicated Mackay had hired a public relations firm and had posted security at his business. The head of the Bromley School board of trustees, Alias McBride, said the school should have been told about Mackay's conviction and whereabouts even if his name was not made generally available.
Rumours had been "flying" in the area, which had put an "awful cloud over everybody. People had been worried and more information could have put minds at rest, she said. In their decision, Justices Panckhurst and Chisholm expressed a "good deal of sympathy" for Mackay due to the momentum the case had gathered since his conviction, which would mean his identity would receive heightened attention.
To mitigate that effect the court had tried to put the salient features of Mackay's "true criminality in the public domain," the justices said.
These features included the fact Mackay had a regular meeting with a prostitute and gratified himself without physical contact and with the prostitute remaining clothed. Sexual discussion and fantasy were of great appeal to him.
His interest in younger girls, whom he referred to as innocent and flat chested, was expressed in the course of such a regular meeting.
The sting operation removed obstacles, which allowed things to proceed further than they would normally have gone. Mackay's insistence that the mother of the girl consented to her child's involvement, which introduced an "air of unreality into the transaction. Mackay's hesitation at carrying on with the transaction. The absence of any material at his home or work of an interest in paedophilia.
"There is now a perception in some quarters that the respondent is a paedophile when in fact there is no evidence he has actually committed any sexual act on a young person.
The most that can be said is that in the most unusual of circumstances ... he set out to re offend," the court said. Despite those factors, the fact remained Mackay had attempted to procure a 12-year-old child, participated to the point of paying a considerable sum, and accepted condoms from the sting's protagonists, the judges said.
A police warning to Mackay in 1993 about his approach to two 14-year-old girls could not be ignored.
"A single act at a time when the respondent was clinically depressed may be viewed in one light, but that act against the background of the warning, also referable to under-age girls, necessitated a less benevolent assessment of risk."
The judges said clear evidence existed that suspicion fell on others due to the suppression, and illustrated why open reporting of criminal proceedings was accorded such primacy. "In cases of serious offending experience has shown the most healthy course is to allow outcomes to be fully reported.'
'Otherwise the possibility exists others may be put at risk. 'ACT MP Stephen Franks said the case had prompted him to submit a Supplementary Order Paper to the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, which would abolish name suppression except when the victim asked for it. The submission would mean the issue was debated when the bill came before Parliament again in the next few weeks.'
OBSERVATION: The prostitutes tongue reached her 'minge' without bending and should have been named on the net. If you know her publish it. Mackay should have taken the rego number of any vehicle in the sting. If the Post Office were unable to supply the registered owners name and address, then it was a Government car. The policewoman was not cunning. Craig Mackay was stupid.
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Are the Banks your best friend. by Honeypottrap. 8:0 3am Thu Jul 18 '02 Who Watches The Watchers In New Zealand? Re: "Corrupt Judges and the New Zealand Police." Information for "pervert" Judges. Hey! Judge Fisher. Government spies confirming you were on the net porn sites during work. The Government do not trust their judges. I understand four judges were caught. Our New Zealand link does not have the judges in chambers e-mails. Readers may wish to forward this site http://www.topsexwebsites.com/?PUfc to their respective courts. Give the judges a buss during their lunch break, then during the afternoon can sentence a person in the dock to say 10 years for being a pervert etc. For Judge Fisher and the other Kiwi judges and readers. Remember anger feeding is at ones sole discretion. In plain English, no one is forced to open the above www site. Some 35 years back Betty P was 15 years 10 months, went before the Christchurch court to give evidence against Arthur G for carnal knowledge. She did not lay a formal complaint. The police were just snooping. Guess the police asked if 'Arthur G' or his pal were pumping her. Two male strangers in the town of Nelson, what were they they up to. Betty was what is termed a hostile witness. The charge was tossed out of court. New Zealand at that stage with it's 'corrupt' police who were out looking for a bit of bussiness. The lawyer was a Mr Drake. ++++++ www.twintowers.com nhs_boy 19/M/UK 2002-02-28 10:37:17.69 To be honest, I think that kiddie-sex offenders should be locked up until thoroughly rehabilitated, but if you're not going to lock them up, you've got to keep them anonymous, or you're just effectively passing a life sentence on them, in that they'll never be able to get a job again, move to a decent neighbourhood, or even perhaps survive very long if the nation's tabloids get in on the act. So like, I say, 10-20 years in prison, or a fine and anonymity. Nothing in between is anything like justice; it is just another form of torture. ++++++ http://www.fosar-bludorf.com/Tempelhof/ http://jya.com/haarp.htm http://www.zeitenschrift.at/magazin/zs_24_15/1_mikrowaffen.htm http://www.bse-plus.de/d/doc/lbrief/lbmincontr.htm http://w3.nrl.navy.mil/projects/haarp/index.html http://cryptome.org/ http://www.raven1.net/ravindex.htm http://www.parascope.com/ds/mkultra0.htm ++++++ Are the Banks your best friend. by Honeypottrap. Ms Liz Brown. Best news, if you are just an urban myth. help@bankombudsman.org.nz http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/982.asp http://www.whiteknights.com.au/ http://www.crikey.com.au/ http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/977.asp http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/960.asp http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/36.asp ++++++ HE SWINDLED $AUD12,1000 from an old lady. First posting by Victor. 10:13am Sun May 5 '02. ++++++ ATM swindle warning may be just another urban myth. 03 May 2002. by MARTIN KAY. Urban myth or devilishly clever swindle? Banking authorities are puzzled by an e-mail that warns of an ATM swindle that leaves customers at risk of having their accounts cleaned out. According to the chain e-mail, which has been sent to hundreds of computers this week, thieves place a clear, rigid, plastic sleeve inside ATM card slots using a piece of trickery dubbed "the Lebanese loop". When a customer puts a card into the slot, the machine is unable to read the magnetic strip and, according to the e-mail, it keeps asking the customer to key in a pin number. While this happens, one of the thieves stands behind the customer, and observes the number. Eventually, the customer gives up and walks off, thinking their card has been swallowed by the machine, and the thieves "loop" out the plastic sleeve complete with the card and clean out the victim's account. The e-mail claims the swindle has been pulled many times in Taupo, and the warning 'has the sanction of the police'. Taupo Senior Sergeant Andy Warne said he had heard of the scam, but not in Taupo, and he had neither seen nor okayed the e-mail. He said he had heard that the swindle had popped up in Hamilton and Auckland, but police national headquarters representative Jon Neilson said he was not aware of it happening in New Zealand. He referred The Dominion to an Internet site specialising in urban myths, which says the claims in the e-mail are suspect but still possible. However, banking ombudsman Liz Brown said that despite first hearing of the alleged swindle 18 months ago, she had never been able to verify it. "I've never been able to ascertain whether this actually happens or whether it's urban myth." ++++++ A SWINDLER ON THE GOLD COAST IN AUSTRALIA IS KNOWN TO HAVE PICKED UP A LEAST $AUD80,1000. HE STOOD NEAR AN ATM. A WOMAN WENT TO USE HER CARD TO FIND IT WOULD NOT WORK. THE MALE WAS THEN STANDING BEHIND HER AND OFFERED TO HELP. HE OBTAINED HER PIN NUMBER. THEN SUGGESTED, SHE GO TO THE BANK TO REPORT IT WHEN HER CARD COULD NOT BE REMOVED. HE THEN REMOVES THE PLASTIC CONTRAPTION; HE HAD PLACED IN THE ATM SLOT ALONG WITH HER CARD. IN THE MEAN TIME, BEFORE THE LOST CARD HAS BEEN REPORTED HE SWINDLED $AUD12,1000 FROM HER BANK ACCOUNT. Comment. Swindlers may be able to clear out your account by transferring to another account of their choice. If a merchants, printout receipt shows your credit card numbers then tell whoever they are a crook. Are making it easy for you to be swindled, and if you are not stupid go shop elsewhere in future. Worth while story. www.anthonynolan.org.uk
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Mother's $100,000 rip-off: 'everyone does it'
By Lee Glendinning
July 19 2002
For 12 years, a Bexley mother of three lived a double life.
As Kay Baker, she worked for Telstra five days a week in a nine-to-five job.
But at the same time, under the name Lila Conway, she was defrauding the Commonwealth, claiming sickness benefits and disability pensions, telling doctor after doctor she could not work because of chronic asthma and acute back pain.
From 1989 to 2001, she pilfered $100,000 in social security benefits, duping medical practitioners saying she had not worked for years, could not work and would not work in the future.
From the money she had squandered, the 55-year-old loaned her son $30,000 to part-fund a new business.
But her extended foray into corporate crime ended in late February 2001 when she was approached by the Tax Office.
After denying at length that she had used false names to receive undue benefits, she eventually owned up, admitting she had defrauded the Commonwealth "because everyone does it and gets away with it".
Dabbing at her eyes and cheeks with a tissue while in the dock yesterday Baker was told she was to serve three years in prison with a non-parole period of 21 months.
She was also ordered to pay back $99,779 still owing to the Commonwealth.
Judge Terence Christie told the NSW District Court yesterday had the rorting scam not been discovered, he was confident it would have continued for years.
"This is a case in which the lady grew so accustomed to receiving double-dippings she was unable to break with it," he said.
"She had ample funds to conduct her life, long before this crime was discovered ...
"This lady did not need these benefits from week to week or she would not have been able to set aside the money for her son."
Although Baker had suffered her "fair share of slings and arrows in life", Judge Christie said this was no excuse for her stealing taxpayers' money through deception.
He did, however, lessen her sentence because of her guilty plea.
Outside court yesterday her lawyer, Piete Baird, described Baker as a "shattered lady".
"She needed the money to help support three children on her own," he said. "The problem is once it started it was very difficult to stop."
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