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Uncertainty surrounds Lloyds TSB's 200 branches in Scotland

Guardian Unlimited

- 2 hours and 13 minutes ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/88817?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Uncertainty+surrounds+Lloyds+TSB%27s+200+branches+in+Scotlandch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Lloyds+TSB+%28Business%29%2CHBOS+%28Business%29%2CBanking+sector+%28Business%29%2CBanks+and+building+societies%2CScotland+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CMoneyc5=Personal+Finance%2CInvestments%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Jill+Treanorc7=2008_12_05c8=1129521c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Lloyds+TSBc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FLloyds+TSB" width="1" height="1" //divpUncertainty surrounds Lloyds TSB's 200 branches in Scotland after its government-brokered takeover of HBOS, which owns Halifax, goes through next month. /ppThe combined bank will use only the Bank of Scotland brand on the high street in Scotland, which means that the 200 branches currently displaying the Lloyds black horse will either have to be rebranded, shut down or replace an existing BoS branch./ppThe takeover - which is expected to see the taxpayer end up with a stake of over 40% in the enlarged group - has caused controversy, particularly in Scotland. But giving the Bank of Scotland brand such prominence on the high street may help to allay some local fears. /ppBrokered by Gordon Brown to try to prevent HBOS from collapsing, the deal still faces a challenge next Monday and Tuesday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, in a case brought by Scottish businessmen. They will argue that the move should not have been cleared by the competition authorities./ppThe enlarged group will have 3,000 branches across the UK - more than any other bank - but is expected to close those where there is overlap. It insists no decision has yet been made on how many branches will close or how many jobs will lost from the 140,000 workforce. There are persistent rumours that 40,000 jobs are at risk at what will be known as Lloyds Banking Group, although these have been denied by Lloyds./ppDecisions are still to be taken about all the brands that the Lloyds stable will own following the merger. It is still not clear what will happen to Lloyds' CG mortgage brand or its Scottish Widows insurance business or HBOS operations such as Insight, Clerical Medical or Birmingham Midshires./ppThe group announced, though, that the major names Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland and Halifax would all survive in some form. While Bank of Scotland will replace all the other brands in Scotland, it will not be used on the high street in Wales or England, where Lloyds TSB and Halifax will both be used. It has not yet been decided whether the Bank of Scotland Corporate brand will be used outside Scotland./ppEric Daniels, Lloyds TSB chief executive who will run the combined bank, said: "Lloyds TSB is committed to a multi-brand strategy for its banking business. We believe that our brands are the strongest in the UKretail financial services sector and we are very focused on growing and developing them. Lloyds Banking Group will have the largest branch network in the United Kingdom which means we will be able to provide an even higher level of service to our customers."/ppThe Unite union insisted it would fight any compulsory job losses. Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, said: "The union's priority remains the job security of the hard-working staff who have worked tirelessly to ensure that both financial institutions continue to deliver an excellent service to their customers. /pp"We will also fight to ensure that no branches are closed in areas where they are currently the last bank locally. Unite will be pressing for meaningful consultation on any possible business changes. /pp"It is vital that management do not forget the impact of any changes on all the stakeholders, including: staff, local business and communities. Unite the union will not accept any compulsory job losses."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/lloydstsbgroup"Lloyds TSB/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/hbos"HBOS/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/banks"Banks and building societies/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland"Scotland/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-xn_LEhBcoVRjMHG0L8uR-0JecY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-xn_LEhBcoVRjMHG0L8uR-0JecY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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Shannon Matthew's mother convicted of kidnap plot

Guardian Unlimited

- 14 hours and 20 minutes ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/49712?ns=guardianpageName=UK+news%3A+They+drugged+her%2C+hid+her%2C+then+waited+to+claim+%26pound%3B50%2C000+rewardch=UK+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Shannon+Matthews+kidnap+%28News%29%2CCrime+-+UK+%28News%29%2CUK+newsc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Martin+Wainwrightc7=2008_12_05c8=1129198c9=articlec10=GUc11=UK+newsc12=Shannon+Matthews+kidnapc13=c14=h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FShannon+Matthews+kidnap" width="1" height="1" //divpThe mother of Shannon Matthews was told she faced a substantial jail term yesterday after she was found guilty of kidnapping her daughter, holding her drugged in a relative's flat, then calling police and making a series of tearful TV appeals./ppKaren Matthews, 33, will be sentenced after Christmas with her co-defendant, Michael Donovan, 40, who was found hiding with the nine-year-old in his flat 24 days after she failed to return from a school swimming trip in Dewsbury in February./ppThey triggered a pound;3.2m police hunt, the largest operation by West Yorkshire police since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry./ppHaving acted out a plan which police believe may have been inspired by the search for Madeleine McCann, both were found guilty at Leeds crown court of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice./ppBefore sending them down, Mr Justice McCombe told both that they faced "substantial custodial sentences". /ppOutside court, neighbours and police condemned the cruelty and waste of resources caused by a scam aimed at stealing pound;50,000 in reward money for finding Shannon. Julie Bushby, chair of the residents and tenants association on the Moorside estate where Matthews lived with her partner, Craig Meehan, said: "She's let us down. The tears she cried when she did those appeals on TV and when she gave evidence in court were crocodile tears. As for Michael Donovan, he's just weird."/ppDetective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who led the investigation, said: "Karen Matthews is pure evil. She started deceiving those closest to her from the very moment that Shannon was kidnapped. /pp"It is difficult to understand what type of mother would subject her own daughter to such a wicked and evil crime. She is a manipulative individual who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to lie. /pp"Michael Donovan is an accomplished liar. Following his arrest and during this trial, he has attempted to portray himself as a weak-willed individual who only acted under duress. We have never accepted this as an accurate reflection of his involvement in Shannon's kidnapping."/ppThe pair will be sentenced after psychiatric and social services reports which are likely to include events before the fake kidnap. The trial heard forensic evidence that Shannon had been given the sedative temazepam and the travel sickness tablets Traveleeze, both used to drug her at Donovan's flat, as early as May 2006 and on at least three occasions prior to the kidnap./ppFor 24 days, the hunt for Shannon Matthews was a repeat of the search for Madeleine McCann. Detectives abandoned murder inquiries to join the team and hundreds of local people took part. /ppThen, to the astonishment of even the hardened murder specialist heading the police inquiry, the woman at the heart of it turned out to be the kidnap's organiser. "Get Karen down here!" yelled Donovan as police dragged him from his flat in Batley Carr, a mile and a half from Shannon's home, after finding the girl hidden under a bed. "We'd got a plan. We're sharing the money - pound;50,000."/ppAt that moment, in Leeds, a mobile beeped for Brennan, who was explaining the lack of progress to members of the police authority. "We've found Shannon," was the message from Detective Constable Paul Kettlewell, one of five officers who broke down Donovan's door./pp"Where's the body?" asked Brennan, a veteran of more than 20 murder inquiries./pp"No, we've found her alive and we're on the way to the station," said Kettlewell./pp"It stopped me in my tracks," says Brennan. "I had to get straight over to Dewsbury to see her physically to reassure myself." He walked into a room where Shannon was playing with some toys, and she smiled and said hello. Brennan recalls: "I smiled back and said hello myself. That was all that needed to be said. We'd rescued a kidnapped, nine-year-old child and police work doesn't get any better."/ppDuring questioning, Karen Matthews and Donovan came up with six contradictory explanations and were branded, respectively, a "consummate liar" and a "pathetic inadequate" by QCs in court./pp"Basically, we've had two prolific liars who are giving wildly different views. Which one do you believe?" says Brennan. "But in the end, they've either got to knock down our evidence or blame one another. Blaming is what they did."/ppDonovan's wild cries as he was bundled into a police van by officers - who found a restraining leash in his flat and a set of "kidnap rules" to keep Shannon quiet - were soon borne out by events. Shannon was offered the chance to see her mother after her rescue, but turned it down. For her part, Karen told the officer who broke the good news to her: "I like the ringtone on your mobile" - then went shopping./ppMatthews was arrested after breaking down during a routine car trip with a police support officer, and babbling that she had asked Donovan, who is Meehan's uncle, to look after Shannon as part of a plot to get away from his nephew, but "everything went wrong"./ppIn court, the prosecuting counsel, Julian Goose QC, made effective use of film clips of Karen Matthews' tearful TV appeals, which he contrasted with evidence from neighbours and police liaison officers of her nonchalance when the media were not watching. In the middle of more than three hours of evidence punctuated by sobs, Matthews was read details of how she laughed and joked with her boyfriend immediately afterwards. It was, said Goose, a cruel charade./ppDonovan's defence, Alan Conrad QC, was equally scathing, urging the jury to draw the obvious lesson from Matthews' style in both the witness box and during the long search for her daughter. After the court had watched a TV appeal where she begged a supposed abductor: "If anyone has got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, let her come home", Conrad turned on her. "You can play for the cameras and play for the court, can't you?" he said, to more tears./ppThere were major weaknesses in the prosecution case: no forensic evidence to link Matthews to the flat where Shannon was imprisoned, and police doubted that Donovan had the wit to carry out a kidnap. But there was evidence the kidnappers desired a reward./ppDonovan spoke of planning to release Shannon and then "find" her in Dewsbury market, and a copy of the Sun with the reward money edging up to pound;50,000 was carefully folded in his flat./pp"I believe that they were going to hold out until they got to pound;50,000," says Brennan. "And though there's no direct evidence that this case mirrored the McCann one, you can see the possibility. Madeleine was still fresh in everyone's minds. A young, pretty girl was being looked for in Portugal, and Shannon was a photogenic girl missing here in Dewsbury. You can see why two and two was put together."/ppDonovan evaded the police search for three weeks because of his web of aliases. It was an extended family member who alerted the inquiry team, after Donovan rang him to ask if he had been interviewed by detectives. "Yes," he said. "Well don't put them on to me," said Donovan. The man rang the police who were, naturally, instantly suspicious./pp"We'd just got Donovan on our list, at 18th in the tally of suspects, some of whom were family members but the vast majority not," says Brennan. "We'd have called on him in the next few days but after that call, he became Friday's priority. Friday was March 14, the day that Shannon was found."/ppIn court, Karen Matthews sprayed allegations at her family, particularly Meehan's relations, suggesting that they were the real plotters. She was just the chosen fall-guy, she claimed, because unlike most of them she had no criminal record and "would get off lightly" if the scam failed./ppBrennan doesn't hide his scepticism, but says: "If any evidence comes to light suggesting others are involved, we will pursue it. If we discover anything more, we will deal with it, you can be sure." /ppThe story of Shannon Matthews may not be over yet./ph2Stranger than fiction?/h2pWidespread rumours that an episode of the TV series Shameless might have inspired the kidnap plot were dismissed by the head of the police inquiry, Det Supt Andy Brennan. "I'd have picked up that straight away," he said. "I was born in Gorton in Manchester where Shameless is made." /ppAn episode shown a month before Shannon disappeared involved the fake kidnap of a young boy, Liam Gallagher, in an attempt to claim a pound;500,000 ransom. The child was hidden a few doors away from his home, with a friend of his sister. Links between the programme, which attracted 2.5 million viewers, never came up in evidence either during the trial or in statements to police. Neither did the case of Madeleine McCann, which dominated headlines for months before Shannon disappeared./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shannon-matthews-kidnap"Shannon Matthews kidnap/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukcrime"Crime/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Iknt4lWZBAakm_U74vLQ6cTJXXI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Iknt4lWZBAakm_U74vLQ6cTJXXI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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