Enquiries are continuing following a housebreaking in Silverknowes on Monday evening (7 February, 2022).
Around 8pm, police received a report of a house in Silverknowes Gardens being broken into. Officers attended and the rear door to the property had been smashed. No-one was within the house at the time and an assessment of what has been taken is under way.
Enquiries carried out so far have revealed that following the break-in the suspect(s) got into a beige or gold coloured Nissan Note car. The registration of the car is GF60 XZH but it is possible the registration plate has been changed.
The Nissan Note was stolen from the Davidson Mains area last month and officers are appealing to anyone who may have seen it to contact them.
Door-to-door enquiries are being carried out and officers are gathering and reviewing relevant CCTV footage for any further information on the suspect(s) and the Nissan Note.
Detective Sergeant Steven Dick said: “It appears the Nissan Note is being used by the suspect(s) to leave the scene and transport any stolen items.
“We should all feel protected in our homes, and know that our personal items and objects are safe from thieves. I am asking for the public’s help in trying to locate this vehicle. If anyone has seen it or noticed it parked up somewhere then please do get in touch with us.
“Your information could help us trace whoever is responsible and allow us to return any stolen items to their rightful owners.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Police Scotland via 101, quoting incident number 3026 of 7 February, 2022. Alternatively, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where you can give information anonymously.
Bill strengthened with new list of criminal content for tech firms to remove as a priority
List includes online drug and weapons dealing, people smuggling, revenge porn, fraud, promoting suicide and inciting or controlling prostitution for gain
New criminal offences will be added to the bill to tackle domestic violence and threats to rape and kill
Flagship UK laws to protect people online are being toughened up with new criminal offences and extra measures to force social media companies to stamp out the most harmful illegal content and criminal activity on their sites quicker.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced extra priority illegal offences to be written on the face of the bill include revenge porn, hate crime, fraud, the sale of illegal drugs or weapons, the promotion or facilitation of suicide, people smuggling and sexual exploitation. Terrorism and child sexual abuse are already included.
Previously the firms would have been forced to take such content down after it had been reported to them by users but now they must be proactive and prevent people being exposed in the first place.
It will clamp down on pimps and human traffickers, extremist groups encouraging violence and racial hate against minorities, suicide chatrooms and the spread of private sexual images of women without their consent.
Naming these offences on the face of the bill removes the need for them to be set out in secondary legislation later and Ofcom can take faster enforcement action against tech firms which fail to remove the named illegal content.
Ofcom will be able to issue fines of up to 10 per cent of annual worldwide turnover to non-compliant sites or block them from being accessible in the UK.
Three new criminal offences, recommended by the Law Commission, will also be added to the Bill to make sure criminal law is fit for the internet age.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “This government said it would legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online while enshrining free speech, and that’s exactly what we are going to do.
“Our world leading bill will protect children from online abuse and harms, protecting the most vulnerable from accessing harmful content, and ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists to hide online.
“We are listening to MPs, charities and campaigners who have wanted us to strengthen the legislation, and today’s changes mean we will be able to bring the full weight of the law against those who use the internet as a weapon to ruin people’s lives and do so quicker and more effectively.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “The internet cannot be a safe haven for despicable criminals to exploit and abuse people online.
Companies must continue to take responsibility for stopping harmful material on their platforms. These new measures will make it easier and quicker to crack down on offenders and hold social media companies to account.”
The new communications offences will strengthen protections from harmful online behaviours such as coercive and controlling behaviour by domestic abusers; threats to rape, kill and inflict physical violence; and deliberately sharing dangerous disinformation about hoax Covid-19 treatments.
The UK Government is also considering the Law Commission’s recommendations for specific offences to be created relating to cyberflashing, encouraging self-harm and epilepsy trolling.
To proactively tackle the priority offences, firms will need to make sure the features, functionalities and algorithms of their services are designed to prevent their users encountering them and minimise the length of time this content is available. This could be achieved by automated or human content moderation, banning illegal search terms, spotting suspicious users and having effective systems in place to prevent banned users opening new accounts.
New harmful online communications offences:
Ministers asked the Law Commission to review the criminal law relating to abusive and offensive online communications in the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003.
The Commission found these laws have not kept pace with the rise of smartphones and social media. It concluded they were ill-suited to address online harm because they overlap and are often unclear for internet users, tech companies and law enforcement agencies.
It found the current law over-criminalises and captures ‘indecent’ images shared between two consenting adults – known as sexting – where no harm is caused. It also under-criminalises – resulting in harmful communications without appropriate criminal sanction.
In particular, abusive communications posted in a public forum, such as posts on a publicly accessible social media page, may slip through the net because they have no intended recipient. It also found the current offences are sufficiently broad in scope that they could constitute a disproportionate interference in the right to freedom of expression.
In July the Law Commission recommended more coherent offences. The Digital Secretary today confirms new offences will be created and legislated for in the Online Safety Bill.
The new offences will capture a wider range of harms in different types of private and public online communication methods. These include harmful and abusive emails, social media posts and WhatsApp messages, as well as ‘pile-on’ harassment where many people target abuse at an individual such as in website comment sections. None of the offences will apply to regulated media such as print and online journalism, TV, radio and film.
The offences are:
A ‘genuinely threatening’ communications offence, where communications are sent or posted to convey a threat of serious harm.
This offence is designed to better capture online threats to rape, kill and inflict physical violence or cause people serious financial harm. It addresses limitations with the existing laws which capture ‘menacing’ aspects of the threatening communication but not genuine and serious threatening behaviour.
It will offer better protection for public figures such as MPs, celebrities or footballers who receive extremely harmful messages threatening their safety. It will address coercive and controlling online behaviour and stalking, including, in the context of domestic abuse, threats related to a partner’s finances or threats concerning physical harm.
A harm-based communications offence to capture communications sent to cause harm without a reasonable excuse.
This offence will make it easier to prosecute online abusers by abandoning the requirement under the old offences for content to fit within proscribed yet ambiguous categories such as “grossly offensive,” “obscene” or “indecent”.
Instead it is based on the intended psychological harm, amounting to at least serious distress, to the person who receives the communication, rather than requiring proof that harm was caused. The new offences will address the technical limitations of the old offences and ensure that harmful communications posted to a likely audience are captured.
The new offence will consider the context in which the communication was sent. This will better address forms of violence against women and girls, such as communications which may not seem obviously harmful but when looked at in light of a pattern of abuse could cause serious distress. For example, in the instance where a survivor of domestic abuse has fled to a secret location and the abuser sends the individual a picture of their front door or street sign.
It will better protect people’s right to free expression online. Communications that are offensive but not harmful and communications sent with no intention to cause harm, such as consensual communication between adults, will not be captured. It will have to be proven in court that a defendant sent a communication without any reasonable excuse and did so intending to cause serious distress or worse, with exemptions for communication which contributes to a matter of public interest.
An offence for when a person sends a communication they know to be false with the intention to cause non-trivial emotional, psychological or physical harm.
Although there is an existing offence in the Communications Act that captures knowingly false communications, this new offence raises the current threshold of criminality. It covers false communications deliberately sent to inflict harm, such as hoax bomb threats, as opposed to misinformation where people are unaware what they are sending is false or genuinely believe it to be true.
For example, if an individual posted on social media encouraging people to inject antiseptic to cure themselves of coronavirus, a court would have to prove that the individual knew this was not true before posting it.
The maximum sentences for each offence will differ. If someone is found guilty of a harm based offence they could go to prison for up to two years, up to 51 weeks for the false communication offence and up to five years for the threatening communications offence.
The maximum sentence was six months under the Communications Act and two years under the Malicious Communications Act.
Professor Penney Lewis, Commissioner for Criminal Law, said: “The criminal law should target those who specifically intend to cause harm, while allowing people to share contested and controversial ideas in good faith.
“Our recommendations create a more nuanced set of criminal offences, which better protect victims of genuinely harmful communications as well as better protecting freedom of expression.
“I am delighted that the Government has accepted these recommended offences.”
Following an increase in antisocial behaviour in the Ferry Road and Telford areas, Operation PAX was instigated – deploying dedicated teams of police officers at key times focussing on engagement, deterrence, disruption and where necessary enforcement.
As a result of recent investigations and working closely with partner agencies at #StrongerNorth an 18-year-old man has been charged with 22 offences and a 15-year-old boy charged with 25 offences relating to antisocial behaviour in the local area.
Police ask that parents and carers speak with their children and young people about the impact of antisocial behaviour to ensure our local community continues to be a safe place to live and work.
Support from members of the public is also vital in helping Police quickly identify those engaging in this behaviour they urge anyone who witnesses an incident to contact them immediately.
Anyone with information regarding antisocial behaviour in their area can contact Police Scotland through 101, the website scotland.police.uk/contact-us or the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Scottish Environment Protection Agency staff and their work tackling waste crime will be featured as part of investigative journalism programme BBC Disclosure tonight (Monday 31 January) at 7pm.
The programme titled ‘Dirty Business’ will delve into criminal waste activities – ranging from ‘man with a van’ flytipping and waste being burnt in a drum to large scale illegal activities with links to serious organised crime such as abandoned lorry trailers bursting with up to 41 tonnes of waste and illegal landfills.
The documentary sees BBC presenter Sam Poling shadowing staff on complex investigations including a site visit to an unidentified location, where a criminal gang has buried large amounts of waste underground resulting in environmental impact from the release of harmful gases and liquids as the illegal deposit degrades.
Sam also accompanies SEPA staff to a non-compliant site and on a site visit to a legitimate waste operator to see how businesses should be operating to stay within the law and discovers how criminals undercutting these types of businesses can impact on the industry.
Waste crime has a serious and detrimental impact on the environment, communities and compliant businesses, costing Scottish taxpayers tens of millions a year in clean-up costs, avoided tax and lost revenue.
Dedicated enforcement
As part of its ongoing commitment to tackle environmental crime and as an environment protection agency ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century, SEPA launched a dedicated intelligence and enforcement function in October 2019 to deal with those types of growing activities.
SEPA’S investigative waste enforcement work includes the monitoring of over 234 active cases including 31 high priority sites, some linked to serious and organised crime activities.
We work closely with partners such as Police Scotland, the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, Serious Organised Crime Task Force and cross border agencies to share information and work together to use powers that partners have to tackle this behaviour, using the latest technologies to help ensure we detect criminal activity and have the most accurate picture possible.
Working together in this way means that we can make it harder for criminals to get a foot in legitimate waste businesses, and where these sites have appeared it will become easier to require those responsible to clean them up.
Waste crime stifles legitimate businesses’ opportunities to innovate and improve our environment and there is a need to continue attracting the right businesses to Scotland that will contribute to our economic growth while protecting and enhancing our environment.
Members of the public and businesses must start thinking of ways to do things differently to limit opportunities for criminals to operate and gain a greater awareness of what happens to their waste.
SEPA works with businesses to help them achieve compliance and understand their obligations and Digital Waste Tracking is one of the innovations which could help make compliance easier and help individuals and businesses to track what happens to their waste.
Jennifer Shearer, Head of Enforcement at SEPA, said: “We are warning criminals – your activities are firmly in the spotlight and compliance with Scotland’s environmental laws is non-negotiable. Our dedicated enforcement unit is focussing our efforts on tackling the most serious non-compliance and illegal activity.
“Waste crime is best tackled on a preventative level and this involves a ‘Team Scotland’ partner led approach. By taking part in this programme we aim to highlight the extensive work that SEPA does and make everyone aware of duties they have in assisting in the disruption of these types of activity.
“For us deterring waste crime will take more than issuing fines and taking prosecutions where possible. It requires Scotland to realise the potential in developing vacant and derelict land for better use, engage in multi-agency partnerships and nurture urban and rural communities.
“In Scotland, businesses committed to doing the right thing by our environment will find a regulator that supports innovation and excellence. For those who do the wrong thing they’ll find a regulator that won’t hesitate to act. It is vital that businesses and individuals realise their duty of care, as the best way to stop waste criminals is to cut off their routes to make money.
“Criminals are resourceful, inventive and will find new ways to break the law – especially when money is involved, but Scotland’s enforcement agencies are working together to make sure we find them and stop them.”
Cabinet Secretary for Justice Keith Brown said: “The Scottish Government and partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce are fully committed to disrupting those who see waste disposal as a money-making enterprise that sits alongside other crime types such as violence, drugs, weapons and money laundering.
“These criminals will do anything to increase their wealth through undermining legitimate waste businesses and tricking unsuspecting customers. Partners on the taskforce will use every means at their disposal to ensure these illegal practices stop and that those who dump waste illegally are held accountable.”
Phil Davies, Joint Unit for Waste Crime Manager, said: “The Joint Unit for Waste Crime works to disrupt serious and organised waste crime to reduce the impact on the economy, the environment and local communities.
“Our strength lies in bringing together agencies from across the UK, including the Environment Agency; Natural Resources Wales; the Scottish Environment Protection Agency; the Northern Ireland EA; the police; HMRC; the National Fire Chiefs Council; the British Transport Police and the National Crime Agency.
“Working together as the Joint Unit, we share intelligence and enforcement to more quickly identify, disrupt and deter criminals and make them pay for the damage they inflict on communities and the environment.”
Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association, Jacob Hayler, said: “Waste crime threatens the natural environment, costs the public purse millions of pounds a year and severely undermines investment in responsible, legitimate, recycling and waste treatment operations.
“The Environmental Services Association is highly supportive of robust enforcement action, greater deterrents and tougher penalties on these criminals, who unfortunately all too often view our sector as a soft target.”
Allan MacGregor a member of the Resource Management Association Scotland (RMAS) Management Committee and Chief Executive of the Binn Group, said: “Unscrupulous operators undermine legitimate businesses, stifle investment, and create an uneven playing field.
“We therefore fully support any efforts to crack down on illegal waste dumping activities and stop waste criminals from operating within our industry.”
How you can help
Everyone can help tackle waste crime by refusing to engage waste service providers who are not licenced by, or registered with SEPA, and by checking that the person offering to pick up their waste is a registered waste carrier. You should ask for evidence of this and then ask where they will dispose of the waste and ensure this is a legitimate licensed site. Failing to make these checks is illegal.
Services that sound too good to be true often are – and could lead to waste being illegally fly-tipped or disposed of by other illegitimate means. For criminals carrying out these activities, illegal waste disposal and fly tipping is a serious offence with significant consequences and those caught risk a criminal conviction and a fine and/or imprisonment. SEPA can also issue Variable Monetary Penalties of up to £40,000 as an enforcement tool.
Everyone can assist by being vigilant and reporting any suspicious activity such as:
Trailers left by the roadside or in isolated areas
Increased activity at previously unused sites
Movements of vehicles late at night or very early in the morning
Unusual odours or increased fly activity
SEPA also advises that landowners must be alert to the risk of their land or premises being used for illegal waste deposits and trailer or vehicle owners should also be aware of the risk of theft for use in illegal waste disposal activities.
Members of the public can report suspicious sites and behaviours to SEPA 24 hours a day, seven days a week through our pollution hotline online, sepa.org.uk/report, or call 0800 80 70 60.
Reports of scam HMRC phone calls have fallen by 97% over the last 12 months, latest HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures show, which display a downward trend in reports overall throughout the past year.
Reports of scammers impersonating HMRC in phone calls peaked at 79,477 in March 2021 and fell to just 2,491 in December 2021.
The fall in scam call reports to HMRC has also been seen elsewhere with an 92% drop in phishing email reports and a 97% drop in scam text reports over the last year.
These significant results are testament to some of the work of teams across HMRC in tackling these attempts to defraud people, including dedicated customer protection teams and helplines, tools to refer scams, and use of innovative technologies. It also signals that the public is more aware of cyber criminals and the methods they use to trick people, in part thanks to HMRC’s awareness raising efforts, meaning fewer members of the public have been the subject of scammers and attempts to steal their money.
All of HMRC’s work to protect the public and make people aware of scams and the advice available on GOV.UK, has helped move HMRC from third most phished brand globally to outside the top 100.
Mike Fell, HMRC’s Head of Cyber Security Operations, said:“We work incredibly hard to protect the public from these criminals who ruin lives by stealing from people. It’s great news that fewer people are receiving and reporting these attempted frauds, but it is still important they continue to report suspicious contact to us. We will continue to do everything we can to protect the public from these cynical attempts to impersonate HMRC to steal from people.
“Our advice is – never let yourself be rushed. If someone contacts you saying they are from HMRC, wanting you to urgently transfer money or give personal information, be on your guard. HMRC will never ring up threatening arrest, only criminals do that. Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so take your time and check HMRC scams advice on GOV.UK.”
Some HMRC-themed scams originate abroad. HMRC works closely with national and international law enforcement agencies to combat scams, including collaboration with India as a key international partner in tackling the organised crime groups that run these scams.
Work by the Indian authorities last year resulted in multiple arrests and the closure of criminal call centre operations. In June 2021, 51 people were arrested at two call centres in Delhi, India, that were dedicated to facilitating HMRC scams.
HMRC has a dedicated Customer Protection team working on cyber and phone crime around the clock, closing down scams and sharing intelligence with law enforcement agencies. HMRC also deploys innovative technologies to prevent misleading and malicious communications that impersonate its genuine e-mail channels, from ever reaching the public. Since 2017 these technical controls have allowed HMRC to prevent 500 million bogus emails reaching customers.
More recently, new controls have prevented 90% of the most convincing text messages from reaching the public and joint working with industry partners has prevented the spoofing of most of HMRC’s helpline numbers.
In the last year, HMRC has responded to 670,793 referrals of suspicious contact from the public, with 283,157 of these cases offering bogus tax rebates. Others threaten arrest for tax evasion or offer fake financial support.
As part of HMRC’s action to combat voice scams, the department has set up a direct referral route on GOV.UK where people can report HMRC-related telephone phishing.
HMRC also works with the telecoms industry to remove phone numbers being used to commit HMRC-related phone scams. In December 2021, four phone numbers being used to commit HMRC-related phone scams were removed, which is likely to have prevented hundreds of scam calls being made.
HMRC uses a range of modern methods when communicating with its customers. Criminals will often then try to duplicate those methods to take advantage of people. HMRC is doing everything it can to stay one step ahead of the criminals to keep its customers and their information safe.
A 31-year-old man has been charged with six offences related to housebreakings and theft.
Officers responded to a call from a member of the public in the Barnton area during the early hours of Tuesday morning (18 January) regarding suspicious activity.
Officers attended and arrested the man nearby. The charges relate to offences which took place between 15 and 18 January 2022.
The man will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
More than 600 motorists were detected for drink drug drive offences during the annual festive drink drug drive campaign.
During the campaign, which ran between 1 December 2021 and 3 January 2022, Police Scotland officers carried out 2965 roadside tests. Overall, 628 drivers were detected for drink or drug driving offences.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: “It is really disappointing to see that some people are still willing to take the risk of driving after consuming alcohol or drugs.
“Our campaign was intelligence led, with a number of drivers reported to us by colleagues, friends or family. Please continue to alert us to concerning driving behaviour as drink/drug driving remains a priority for us throughout the year.
“Everyone has a part to play in reducing road casualties and your information helps our officers to act quickly to stop drivers who are selfishly putting lives at risk by driving after consuming alcohol or drugs.”
Police Scotland has released images of four men they believe may hold information which might assist in relation to a serious assault that occurred on Frederick Street around 3.20am on Friday, 4 September, 2021.
The first man is described as being Asian, 18-30-years-old, medium build, wearing a light pink coloured shirt, blue jeans and white trainers with an item of clothing tied around his waist.
The second man is described as being Asian, 18-30-years-old, tall and thin build, mid length black hair, wearing a grey t-shirt with dark coloured shirt which is open. Grey jeans and dark coloured trainers.
The third man is described as being Asian, 20-30-years-old, medium build, with long black shoulder length hair and facial hair, wearing a grey shirt carrying a grey jacket, tan coloured trousers and black shoes.
The forth man is described as being white, 18-25-years-old, medium build, wearing a short sleeved patterned shirt, jeans and dark coloured trainers with a white sole.
Detective Constable Mark Walker of Gayfield CID said: “I would urge each of these four men, or anyone who has information relating to any of these four men, depicted in the images to make contact with the Police.
“Members of the public can contact Police Scotland via the 101 non-emergency telephone number quoting incident number 0657 of 4 September, 2021 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
Edinburgh Police Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council’s Christmas wish is to #KeepXmasSafe for young people whilst online & keep parents & carers more informed.
To paraphrase the Christmas song “It’s the most vulnerable time of the year.” Cyber criminals don’t take a holiday, so your chances of being a victim of a cyber attack can increase.
Christmas holidays are a prime time for criminals to take advantage of. At this time of year, organisations will start to close and will be running with a heavily reduced staff count which can make organisations vulnerable.
Last Christmas Eve, Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s digital systems were held under attack. It knocked several of their key systems offline causing major disruption to their staff and made it difficult for them to do their work.
Does your current security strategy include a plan for cyber attacks during the holidays?
The benefits of having a business community plan are undeniable. When disaster strikes, getting business operations back up and running quickly is crucial. No business is immune to potential threats, no matter how big or small your organisation is.
Make sure you have taken all the necessary steps to secure your IT unfractured ahead of time. From protecting your website, safeguarding your customer details to training your staff it’s time to take a closer look at your organisation’s cyber security.
Take the time now to review your business continuity plan and know where you can seek advice and support should you need it.
Developing a plan
A Cyber Incident Response Plan is a set of instructions that are designed to help you prepare, detect, respond and recover from cyber incidents. Having a plan will outline the recovery process, so that everyone knows what is required of them during an incident. Each department in your organisation should understand the incident response procedure.
Our Cyber Incident Response Pack is an easy-to-follow guide to setting up a cyber incident response plan for your business. It has checklists, action plans, and template documents that you can use today. This will help you identify and prioritise your company’s most valuable assets and links to advice to help you keep them secure.
Regular back-ups
Ransomware has been a growing cyber security threat, and one which could affect any organisation that does not have appropriate defences. Ransomware is a type of malware that prevents you from accessing your computer (or the data that is stored on it). The computer itself may become locked, or the data on it might be stolen, deleted or encrypted.
You should perform a regular back-up of your systems and data, which will enable quick restoration of business functions. Importantly, having offline versions of your backups is your best defence, as you can wipe any encrypted devices and restore from your offline back up.
All sorts of electronic devices can hold personal or financial data so it’s important to make sure you secure these devices with strong passwords and update the software regularly.
Companies fix any weaknesses by releasing updates. You should always make sure to install the latest software updates to protect your devices from vulnerabilities. Take some time to review your security settings on all your devices and make sure you’re protected against the latest threats.
Small Business Guide
The NCSC’s Small Business Guide and Small Charity Guide includes simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your business from cyber security risks. Doing these steps will significantly increase your protection from the most common types of cyber crime.
By proactively addressing the cyber security in your organisation, you can enjoy the holidays knowing you have minimized any potential risks.
Who to contact for support
Organisations looking for support and advice can call the free Cyber Incident Response Helpline. This helpline can support organisations that have been a victim of an attack and provide expert guidance to get back to secure operations.
Call the helpline on: 01786 437 472
You can report cyber crime to Police Scotland by phoning 101
