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Coquet High School Partnership
Expected drop in pupil numbers

Women's house building project
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Age Concern Northumberland
...need people who are concerned

Chinese freeze affects Welfare
Snow stops take-away

Child Trust Fund
Invest in your child's future

Penny
New year Resolutions

Amble Churches Together
Thoughts for New Year

County Councillors report
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A tale of two thefts
You have been warned

The Peer Mentors
Students help each other

Residents get the hump over bumps
Calming the traffic?

Dirty wellies in a wine bar
Rural romance

Small skinny latte
Toddlers make their own coffee shop

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Safe to shore

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Greetings from Aglaia
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Ray King column
Kevin Keegan takes over. "We all eagerly await"

A tale of two thefts

I have, fortunately been relatively free from the effects of crime. However, recently, I was the subject of two thefts within two months. Both occurred whilst I was feeling relaxed and safe.

In September I was holidaying in Spain. Documents and valuables were placed in the hotel’s safe-keeping facility. Feeling reassured, I rested, taking in the view, with my rucksack acting as a footrest. A man approached. requesting directions in Spanish. To hear more clearly I took a step towards him. During the conversation the chap fiddled with his towel, passing it from hand to hand. Before our group decided to move on I reached down for my rucksack. It wasn’t there!

After much head scratching we concluded that the bag had been stolen. A man shouted across the plaza, enquiring if I had lost something. He explained that while we were responding to the request for directions another man had walked behind us. This man dropped his towel before picking up the towel and bag together.
Before going to the police station we checked waste bins to see if the bag had been dumped. The rucksack contained personal items including my prescription glasses and diary. The loss of my diary was more worrying.

At the police station, the polite non- English speaking officer provided a questionnaire about the incident for completion. I also reported the incident to the Holiday Representative at the hotel.

Although no pin numbers were in the diary there was confidential information.
The following day was spent informing banks about the theft. This involved many repeated explanations, holding on, listening to unwanted music, misunderstandings, being passed on to other departments, cut off, and being told that they were unable to help. Eventually, my credit card was cancelled, identity theft insurance taken out and following a stiff drink I resumed my holiday in a rather subdued mood.

The second theft took place in the comfort of my home. For five years I have enjoyed the convenience of internet banking. I adhered to advice regarding secure sites, firewall, virus checks, frequent checking of transactions and so on.

My day started uneventfully, checked my bank balance, and proceeded, comfortable in the knowledge that I had sufficient funds.

Later I attempted to access my internet account and was refused access. The reason given was that there had been several unsuccessful access attempts made during that day. I thought this strange as it was my first attempt. I became more suspicious when an on screen notice instructed me to reactivate my password. I doubted the origin of this notice.

Using the telephone banking facility I discovered that my account was overdrawn by a substantial amount. Now I was really anxious. I contacted the online banking representative who checked online activity. We discovered that all my accounts had been accessed. Within the preceding twenty four hours significant amounts of money had been moved between accounts prior to withdrawal.

I spoke to the bank internet fraud department. This resulted in freezing all on-line accounts. This process was repeated with several other internet banking agencies I used. I followed this up by requesting a series of credit rating checks and reported the incident to the police.

My holiday insurance compensated me, minus excess fee and calculating reduced value of stolen items. I received full reimbursement of money taken from my bank accounts and an apology. However, I lost many hours dealing with the consequences. This also led to increased telephone bills and direct debits going unpaid.

I haven’t yet regained confidence in internet banking. At the moment I still don’t know whether these thefts are related. Perhaps we are at our most vulnerable when feeling relaxed, comfortable and safe?

Colin Westerman