January 2009 Archives

A TESCO Express store is opening in Eastcote on February 19.

The shop will open at the old Woolworths site in Field End Road, which closed its doors for the on November 1 last year after opening 71 years ago.

A CONTROVERSIAL row over whether a car boot sale should be allowed to continue has finally come to an end.

An application to hold the event on 12 Sundays between April and October at Field End School, in Field End Road, Eastcote, was refused at the north planning committee last night (Wed).

The event was held at the school for four and a half years without any problems before residents started to complain about noise, parking, and traffic problems generated by the event in 2007.

Hillingdon Council told the organisers to apply for planning permission and a petition containing 113 signatures and 30 letters were sent objecting to it as well as a 307-signature petition and four letters supporting it.

The committee members decided to refuse the application because of the traffic congestion and the impact it would have on the residents in Field End Road, The Fairway and Mount Pleasant.

An application to run table top sales 10 times a year and antique fairs nine times inside the school on Sundays was approved at the committee and that is expected to start next month.

AN EMPLOYEE at an internationally famous law college resorted to fraud to cover up a car crash involving her and her boyfriend.

Kelly Ryan, 26, of Field End Road, Eastcote, told the police that her Hyundai had been stolen and even collected an insurance pay out on the damaged vehicle, Guildford Crown Court heard on Friday.

It was later discovered the defendant's partner had been driving the car when it ploughed into some street furniture in London Road, Burpham, while the two of them were returning from a night out in August 2007.

Ryan, who has a £15,000-a-year clerical job at the College of Law, in Guildford, narrowly escaped jail but was told by the judge that her planned career as a solicitor was in ruins.

The court was told that Ryan, who pleaded guilty to fraud and perverting the course of justice, turned to deception under pressure from her boyfriend who was not qualified to drive.

Jill Beale, prosecuting, said Ryan also told her insurance company she had parked the Hyundai in its usual place and it had disappeared.

She later received a cheque from her insurers for £303.39, but when the car was examined, there was no evidence that it had been broken into.

Subsequent tests showed that Ryan's DNA was on one of the air bags which had inflated on impact - showing that she must have been in the car at the time of the accident.

David Castle, defending, said: "My client and her boyfriend were returning from a night out when the accident happened. He was driving and she came under pressure from him to cover up for him.

"It was not fraud perpetrated for financial gain but to save her boyfriend from being prosecuted.

"She had aspirations of being a solicitor but this conviction is going to impede, possibly for ever, such a career."

Ryan was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours community work and pay £263 in court costs.

POLICE are appealing for witnesses following a burglary at a chemist.

Boots Chemist in Field End Road, Eastcote, was burgled at about 1.30am on December 27.

It is believed there were two suspects who broke one of the windows in the front door of the shop sounding the alarm before making off in a blue car with money they stole from a till.

Detective Sergeant Tony Norris, from the Priority Crime Unit at Hillingdon Police, said: "We are keen to trace the suspects in this incident and urgently need to identify any witnesses who may have further information."

Anyone with information should call DS Norris on 0208 246 1567 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.