'Crash For Cash': Men Jailed For Fatal Scam

By Siobhan Robbins, Sky News Reporter

Members of a Polish gang who staged a "crash-for-cash" insurance scam that led to the death of a motorist have been jailed for up to 10 years and three months.

The deliberate crash in June 2011 caused another collision that killed 34-year-old Baljinder Kaur Gill.

The case was the first fatal crash-for-cash accident to be recorded in Britain.

Radoslaw Bielawski, Jacek Kowalczyk, Andrzez Skowron and Artur Okrutny were sentenced for the attempted fraud in which a Volkswagen Passat and an Audi A3 were to be crashed into a Ford Transit van in order to claim personal injury compensation.

Miss Gill's Ford Fiesta was hit by one of the vehicles used in the £20,000 insurance scam and left stranded in the fast lane of the A40 in Buckinghamshire.

She died when her car was then hit again by a van that was not involved in the scam.

Passing sentence, judge Mr Justice Sweeney said: "This is the first such enterprise to result in a death to come before the courts.

"No sentence can possibly reflect the value of Miss Gill's life."

Ringleaders Radoslaw Bielawski (L) and Jacek Kowalczyk

He added: "It is clear that Miss Gill's death has had, and continues to have an absolutely devastating effect on her family, especially her mother and brother, who close afterwards suffered the loss of her other brother to cancer.

"A case such as this requires the court to show deterrence is one of the purposes of sentencing."

Ringleaders Bielawski, 24, from Rosewood Avenue, Greenford, and Kowalczyk, 32, from Fraser Road, Perivale, were each jailed for 10 years and three months for conspiracy to commit fraud, causing death by dangerous driving and conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice.

Skowron, 25, from Shelley Gardens in Wembley, was jailed for ten years for conspiracy to commit fraud and causing death by dangerous driving.

Artur Okrutny, 23, from Briar Road, London, was not present at the crashes but was jailed for 12 months for conspiring to pervert the course of justice by providing false driver details after the crash and making a false statement to police about what happened.

Andrzez Skowron was jailed for 10 years

Colin Lee, aged 34, from York Place, Aylesbury, was found guilty of causing death by careless driving and jailed for 12 months. Lee was the driver of the van that fatally collided with the victim's car.

Miss Gill's family said in a statement released after the hearing that justice had been done.

"Our family will never recover from this tragic event which took the life of our beautiful daughter, sister and truly loved member of our family from us.

"We are relieved that after such a lengthy trial that justice has at last been served today," the statement went on to say.

"As a united family we hope that the result of these court proceedings will prevent any other innocent person being killed or injured on the road through the greed of others."

Figures from the Insurance Fraud Bureau show such scams cost the motor industry £392m very year.

The four men had all arrived from Poland within the last ten years and were working full-time but received no benefits, their lawyers said.

They said their clients were sorry about Miss Gill's death, but insisted it was the subsequent collision that caused the fatal impact.

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Horsemeat Found In Schools, Pubs And Hotels

Horsemeat has been found in school dinners, pub meals and food prepared for hospitals in the UK, it has been revealed.

As the scandal widens, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) also said it had raided three more meat plants this week.

Lancashire County Council confirmed that horsemeat was detected in cottage pies it served at 47 schools.

The council said it has withdrawn the affected products from all of the schools' kitchens but refuses to say which ones served the contaminated meat.

Lancashire County Councillor Susie Charles said: "Relatively few schools in Lancashire use this particular product but our priority is to provide absolute assurance that meals contain what the label says - having discovered this one doesn't, we have no hesitation in removing it from menus."

It has also been revealed that catering company Compass and Whitbread, one of the UK's largest hospitality companies, detected horse DNA in their products.

Contaminated beef lasagne and burgers were sold at Whitbread companies Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater Grill and Table Table.

The contaminated meals were served at Premier Inns

The firm said the products had been removed from their menus and will not be replaced until further testing has been carried out.

Compass, which operates across the UK and Ireland, said that sites where it operates had been supplied with burgers from Rangeland - an Irish processor found to have had two consignments of meat with horse DNA.

They company said: "This is totally unacceptable. We have informed all of the affected sites of these developments, explained the actions we have taken and issued unreserved apologies."

Compass said 13 sites in the Republic and 27 in Northern Ireland, including two secondary schools, were supplied with burgers from Rangeland, the 4oz Rangeburgers which have been found to contain 5-30% horse DNA.

The company has catering operations at 7,000 sites and that most of the sites using Rangeland product were offices.

None of the sites where food was withdrawn were hospitals or sporting venues, Compass confirmed.

Compass said it had withdrawn Rangeland produce on February 5, which included 180 cases of suspect burgers.

Officials have also said that burgers containing horsemeat had been supplied to hospitals in Northern Ireland.

Whitbread said they had sent 30 products to be tested and the company received the results on Thursday afternoon.

A spokesman said: "We are shocked and disappointed at this failure of the processed meat supply chain.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has updated MPs on the scandal

"As a responsible business we shall work with the FSA to implement a robust testing regime to avoid this happening in the future. We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers for any concerns or inconvenience that this may cause."

The news comes as the Food Standards Agency (FSA)  published the results of tests on all supermarket beef products, revealing that 29 of the 2,501 samples contained horsemeat.

There are around 900 more test results to be released, with the next batch to be revealed next Friday.

The agency's chief scientist, Andrew Wadge, told Sky News that he was reassured by the results so far, but retailers need to take responsibility.

The FSA said it had raided two plants in Tottenham, north London, and one in Hull, Yorkshire, on Thursday.

The agency said it had collected meat samples for testing, as well as computers and documentary evidence.

One of the plants raided in north London, Dinos & Sons Continental Foods, said it was "co-operating with local trading standards officers and the FSA".

"Dinos & Sons has been asked to clarify its position in respect of the transportation and storage of frozen beef that was imported by, and belonged to, a third party that the FSA is investigating.

A range of products, including burgers, have been contaminated

"Dinos & Sons did not keep this frozen beef in the same premises as its own products and there was therefore no possibility of any cross-contamination.

"At no time has Dinos & Sons produced or manufactured anything that is under investigation or is the subject of any possible contamination or mislabelling.

"There is no suggestion whatsoever that Dinos & Sons manufacturing processes have been compromised in any way. Tests undertaken by independent laboratories on Dinos & Sons products have proved negative to date for any contaminants, including horse meat."

On Tuesday, authorities raided Peter Boddy slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and Farmbox Meats in Llandre in Aberystwyth, West Wales.

Following the release of the FSA results, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said the food industry has a lot of work to do in the wake of the scandal.

"It's wholly unacceptable that if people buy products marked beef, they turn out to be horsemeat," he said.

"That's why it was so important to undertake this intensive testing activity to gain a meaningful picture."

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Scotland Avalanche: Two People Killed

A man and a woman who were caught up in an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands have died.

The avalanche was reported shortly after 12.30pm in the Chalamain Gap area of the Cairngorms.

The two victims had been airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after being found by mountain rescue teams, Northern Constabulary said.

Another man who was flown to the same hospital remains in a critical condition.

A police spokesman said no further information would be given about those involved until their families had been notified.

Police had launched a search with mountain rescue teams, rescue dogs and two helicopters.

The Cairngorms are in the eastern Highlands of Scotland

"The phone call came into the team leader, reporting that there was an avalanche with multiple burials," said David Rutledge, the training officer for Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team, who controlled the operation from the team's base.

"We needed to get there as quickly as possible."

He said the accident had occurred relatively close to the roadside, within 2km (1.2 miles) of the ski road.

Mr Rutledge said two parties of six were involved in the incident in total.

Those not taken to hospital were walked off the hill.

It was the latest incident in the Scottish mountains in recent weeks.

Four people were killed in Glencoe last month

Earlier this week, a hillwalker died during an expedition with a mountaineering club in the Cairngorms.

Graham Connell, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, was found dead in the Jacob's Ladder area on Monday after a large-scale search for him and five other people who were reported overdue on Sunday afternoon.

The other members in the party, who were unhurt, were picked up by an RAF rescue helicopter after being located by Braemar Mountain Rescue Team on a hill near Carn Tarsuinn.

Earlier this month, three men survived falling 150m in an avalanche in the Coire an t-Sneachda area of the Cairngorms.

The men, who were wearing helmets, were airlifted to hospital with leg injuries.

In January, four people were killed in an avalanche in Glencoe.

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Coronation Street Actor: Child Sex Charges

One of Coronation Street's longest-serving actors, Michael Le Vell, has been charged with a string of child sex offences.

Le Vell, who plays garage owner Kevin Webster in the ITV soap opera, is accused of 19 child sex offences, including child rape, and sexual activity with a child, Greater Manchester Police said.

Le Vell, 48, a father-of-two whose real name is Michael Turner, will appear in court charged with the offences on February 27.

The actor was initially arrested in connection with the offences in September 2011.

The investigation was dropped three months later when authorities said there would be no further action taken against him as there was not enough evidence against him.

However, following a review of the case by lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service the decision has been taken that it is in the "public interest" to charge the actor.

Speaking after the investigation against him was dropped in 2011, Le Vell said he was "delighted" to have been "completely exonerated", thanked police for their "thorough" investigation and Coronation Street staff and the public for their support.

Le Vell vowed to put the allegations behind him and returned to the show after a short break and is now currently involved in some of the soap's main storylines.

Michael Le Vell was first questioned over the child sex allegations in 2011

Alison Levitt, QC, principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions, reviewed a file of evidence in relation to allegations of sexual offences and looked again at a decision previously made not to prosecute.

Ms Levitt said: "I have very carefully reviewed the evidence in this case and I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge Michael Robert Turner with a number of sexual offences.

"I have authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Mr Turner with 19 offences, including rape of a child."

Le Vell, who split from his wife Janette Beverley last year,  is one of television's most famous faces after playing car mechanic Kevin Webster for the past 30 years in the TV show.

Originally from Manchester, he began his acting career in the Oldham Theatre Workshop after taking an interest in amateur dramatics while at school.

He first joined the soap in 1983 and quickly endeared himself to fans who have followed the trials and tribulations of Kevin, from Brian Tilsley's apprentice mechanic through to his stormy marriage to Sally, played by Sally Dynevor, and fathering two teenage girls as well as a love child from his affair with Molly Dobbs.

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Mick Philpott's Lover: 'Wife And I Took Turns'

By David Crabtree, Midlands Correspondent

A woman allegedly being framed for a fire that killed six children has told a court she was nowhere near the house on the night of the tragedy.

Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead are accused of starting the fire at their semi-detached home after telling police his former live-in partner, Lisa Willis, had been threatening him and his family.

Prosecutors allege the couple hatched a plot to discredit Miss Willis - who had left the home with her five children, four of whom were fathered by Philpott - and regain custody of the youngsters, but it "went horribly wrong".

The three had an unconventional relationship which was revealed to the court.

Miss Willis, 29, said she and Mick Philpott's wife, 31, would alternate the nights they would sleep with him at the home they all shared.

She told Nottingham Crown Court: "We took it in turns, we never had all three of us together.

"One night it would be me, one night it would be Mairead."

Mick Philpott arrived at Nottingham Crown Court by prison van

Miss Willis said the children slept upstairs and this arrangement continued until they bought a caravan which stood on the driveway of the house.

The woman who would be sleeping with Philpott on any given night went to the caravan with him, while the other woman slept inside with the children.

Mick Philpott, 56, denies six counts of manslaughter in relation to the deaths of the six children. His wife and a third defendant, 46-year-old Paul Mosley, also deny the same six charges.

Mick and Mairead Philpott's children - Jade, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, Jayden, five, and Duwayne, 13 - all perished after the fire which engulfed their home in Victory Road, Allenton, Derby, as they slept in their beds in the early hours of May 11 last year.

Prosecutor Richard Latham QC alleges that the Philpotts and Mosley started the fire in a botched plan to set Miss Willis up as the culprit after she and her children left the relationship.

The funeral of the Philpott children

Miss Willis, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said she had met Philpott when she was 17, and that he was a friend of her sister.

She already had a young son with another man and was living in a two-bed council house at the time but was hoping to move to larger accommodation, which she was struggling to get.

She told the court that after getting better acquainted with Philpott he suggested that she move in with him and Mairead, who were not married at the time.

The couple had a son and a daughter and Miss Willis said that she was chosen as a bridesmaid at their wedding.

The court heard her relationship with Philpott became sexual "weeks" after she moved in to the Victory Road council house, and it was something that did not bother Philpott's wife.

"Mick said he asked Mairead about it, if she was okay about it, and apparently she turned round and said she was fine," Miss Willis said.

"He asked her in front of me as well and said, 'I've asked you about Lisa moving in' and she said, 'Yeah, I'm fine about it'."

Mr Latham put it to her: "There's a difference between you moving in and having a sexual relationship."

The scene of the blaze in May last year

But Miss Willis replied: "She was fine."

She said she had never threatened the Philpotts.

Regarding the night of the tragedy, she told the court her sister and children were at her house until 8pm on May 10.

"Did you go anywhere near number 18 Victory Road that night?" Mr Latham asked.

"No, I never", she replied.

"Did you have any discussion with your sister about going to number 18 that night?" he continued.

"No, we didn't," Miss Willis replied.

She also told the court that in an incident early on in their relationship Philpott repeatedly hit her on the legs, back and arms with a piece of wood.

The argument started when he questioned her about who was the father of her child, she said.

"He just kept saying, 'No, it's not true'," she told the court.

She added she was "shocked and disappointed" afterwards and that "if we had a fallout he would bring it up again".

The trial continues.

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Stafford Hospital: Dementia Patient Abused

A health worker at Stafford Hospital dragged an elderly dementia patient around by his pyjamas before calling him an animal, a medical tribunal has heard.

Bonka Kostova, a Bulgarian-qualified midwife who was working as a healthcare assistant, was found to have physically and verbally abused the 73-year-old on a night shift in July 2010.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said her fitness to practise was "currently impaired by reason of her misconduct". It is expected to deliver its final verdict on Thursday.

Ms Kostova was found to have pulled the man, known only as patient A, out of a toilet cubicle using the collar of his pyjama top while his trousers were around his ankles.

She then shouted "I hate you" and "you are no longer a human being but an animal" or words to that effect, the NMC found.

Staff nurses intervened, taking Ms Kostova to one side and telling her that her behaviour was "unacceptable".

One of them said Bonnie, as she was known to her colleagues, was "losing it".

Ms Kostova had been left in charge of the patient - who was said to be aggressive in his speech or manner around 80% of the time - when his carer went for a break.

The tribunal was told she had received general training in looking after vulnerable adults but had not been given specific training for dementia patients.

Ms Kostova has not worked at the hospital since she was suspended from her post.

Robert Courteney-Harris, medical director of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This incident was dealt with very swiftly when it happened in 2010."

A report into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, published last week, highlighted the "appalling and unnecessary" suffering of hundreds of patients between 2005 and 2009.

Some were left for hours sitting in their own faeces, food and drink was left out of reach and hygiene was so poor that relatives had to clean toilets themselves.

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Woman And Toddler Hit-And-Run CCTV Released

Police have released video of the moment a woman and toddler were sent flying in a hit-and-run in an effort to track the driver and the car.

The CCTV footage shows the 42-year-old driving instructor and her three-year-old nephew crossing the road on December 7 in Coventry.

As they reach the middle of King William Street a black Audi estate overtakes another car, which had stopped to turn into a junction, and strikes them.

The driver of the Audi is seen to slow for a moment, but then accelerates along the road as passers-by rush to help the stricken pair, left lying in the middle of the street.

Fortunately, the woman and toddler were unharmed aside from a few minor injuries.

West Midlands Police said a witness supplied a partial number plate for the Audi - EN57 - but they have been unable to trace the vehicle and believe it could be hidden in a garage.

Officers believe the car will have sustained damage on the front.

"We have taken the unusual step of releasing the images - which carries a warning for viewers - in the hope that someone will recognise the car and come forward with information so that we can trace the driver," said PC Abbi Jones.

"This could have been so much worse. At the time of the collision, the driver would not have known that the woman and child were uninjured."

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Madeleine McCann Lookalike DNA Test Negative

DNA tests have confirmed a New Zealand girl is not the missing youngster Madeleine McCann, police have announced.

The girl has twice been mistaken for Madeleine by members of the public and British police asked for testing to be carried out to confirm she was not the missing child.

The first sighting was last March and the second on New Year's Eve.

New Zealand police have said in a statement that they have sent the DNA samples to Scotland Yard officers who are still investigating Madeleine's disappearance.

New Zealand police say the unnamed girl's family has requested privacy.

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished nearly six years ago during a family holiday in Portugal.

Her disappearance drew attention as well as false sightings around the globe.

Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 after failing to find out what happened to her.

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Heathrow 'Ticket Price Rise' Under £3bn Plans

The bosses of Heathrow Airport have announced £3bn of investment in a move that is likely to leave passengers paying higher prices.

The proposals include the opening of the new Terminal 2 next year, improved check-in and baggage facilities and more customer service training for staff.

The airport wants regulators to approve a five-year plan which will see the fees it charges airlines to use the airport rise over the period 2014 to 2019.

If approved, the charges will increase from the equivalent of £19.33 per passenger for 2012/13 to as much as £27.30 in 2018/19.

Heathrow accounts for 78% of all long-haul flights from the UK.

The charges, which need to be approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), will help pay for the investment.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow said: "Heathrow is the UK's only hub airport and a strategically important national infrastructure asset. Heathrow faces stiff competition from other European hubs and we must continue to improve the service we offer passengers and airlines.

"We have invested billions of pounds in new facilities such as Terminal 5 in recent years and passengers say they have noticed the difference. Our plan for a further £3bn of private-sector investment will further improve the airport for passengers.The plan represents good value for money for airlines and passengers and comes at no cost to taxpayers."

He said the airport envisaged passenger numbers increasing from just under 70 million now to around 72.6 million by 2018/19.

British Airways is concerned about the price rises

Asked about the possibility of a third runway, Mr Matthews said that with all that would be need to be done in terms of political decisions and planning there was unlikely to be "any shovel going into the ground realistically for the period we are talking about (2014 to 2019)".

He said that the proportion of Heathrow passengers rating their journey as very good or excellent had increased from 48% in 2007 to 72% today.

While airlines have supported plans for better customer service they have concerns about the rise in charges.

British Airways said: "Heathrow Airport's charges have already tripled over the past 11 years. The charges must be reduced significantly over the coming years, especially when the airport is cutting investment by around 25% from next year onwards.

"We hope the regulator (the CAA) will give a fair ruling in the months ahead, which doesn't penalise customers and airlines."

Virgin Atlantic chief operating officer Steve Griffiths said: "We are totally committed to improving the passenger experience at Heathrow. However, we believe this can be done without a repeat of the incredibly steep price rises we have seen in airport charges in the last few years.

"Prices at Heathrow are triple the level they were 10 years ago. Clearly this is a concern for all passengers travelling through Heathrow, and all airlines operating there."

Heathrow's flight punctuality - the number of planes taking off or landing within 15 minutes of schedule - was only around 67% in 2007.

It has now gone up to 80% and the airport wants this figure to increase to 90% by the end of the decade.

Its chiefs said that while 4% of bags went missing in 2007, this figure is now down to 1.5%.

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Barclays Boss Jenkins Sharpens Jobs Axe

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Barclays is to axe thousands of jobs outside its investment bank as part of a streamlining of Britain's second-biggest lender under its new chief executive.

The cull, which will come alongside roughly 2,000 previously-reported cuts inside Barclays' investment bank, will underline the scale of the transformation planned by Antony Jenkins, who took on the top job five months ago.

Details of the job cuts are expected to be announced later alongside a wider review of the bank's operations.

The precise number of cuts being planned by Mr Jenkins was unclear on Monday evening, but even 7,000 job losses across the group would represent just 5% of Barclays' 140,000-strong workforce.

Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins

One insider said that the cuts would be "significant" and could reach "double-digit thousands over time", but refused to be specific.

Mr Jenkins has drawn up a series of plans aimed at rebuilding Barclays' reputation among both shareholders and customers.

His blueprint will include cutting Barclays' bonus pool to less than £2bn and forcing senior investment bankers to hold onto their awards for longer.

The new boss will also, as Sky News revealed on Saturday, take the axe to Barclays' structured capital markets unit, which made hundreds of millions of pounds for the bank through complex tax-led transactions.

Barclays will announce its annual results for 2012 this morning.

Despite a £290m fine for Libor-rigging and more than £1bn being set aside for mis-selling products to customers, the bank is expected to report substantial profits.

Barclays declined to comment.

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Bulger Mother: 'Venables Still A Danger'

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has told Sky News she believes tougher sentences are needed to stop people who commit serious crimes from "getting away with it".

Speaking on the eve of the 20th anniversary of her son's murder, Denise Fergus says despite fighting for two decades she feels she has still not achieved justice.

James Bulger was just two years old when he was abducted from the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

CCTV cameras captured 10-year-old schoolboys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson leading the toddler by the hand. They took him to a railway embankment in Walton, Liverpool, where they tortured him, inflicting 42 injuries before leaving him dead on the tracks where a train severed his body.

Venables and Thompson were convicted of murder and given life sentences in November 1993. Less than eight years later, in June 2001, the pair were released and given new identities.

Denise Fergus told Sky News she feels let down by the justice system and strongly believes a change in the law is needed so killers receive harsher punishments.

Mother Denise Fergus believes Jon Venables remains a danger to society

"They should make them realise what they've done is wrong. If they give them a hard enough time maybe they'll think again before they go on to commit another crime.

"What I'm saying is stop giving them stupid sentences like five or 10 years or if they get a 10-year sentence stop dropping it to five years because of good behaviour. They've done bad in the first place to be there. Start giving them proper sentences, sentences that fit the crime and stop being so lenient on them."

Venables was jailed again in 2010 for downloading and distributing dozens of indecent images of children. He is now making a new bid for release.

For the first time Mrs Fergus is expected to deliver a victim statement in person to his parole board. She has told Sky News she feels strongly he should remain behind bars. She has been concerned that a possible sexual motive for her son's murder has never been properly investigated. She believes Venables still poses a risk to the public.

"I just urge them not to release him because I still believe he is a danger. He's a ticking timebomb and he always has been. To get away with so much you know someone out there hasn't been doing their job. He was meant to have been monitored on his release. To build up all those images on his laptop is unbelievable and just proves that he hasn't been getting monitored at all."

Venables was 10 when he and Robert Thompson murdered James Bulger

"I'm not saying lock him up forever. Until he's got a stable mind then I think he should be locked up. But I don't know if he'll ever get that stable mind."

Mrs Fergus also believes he shouldn't be given a second new identity.

"If he gets another ID then he's putting other people in danger because on his release people are going to be aware who moves into their area. If someone new moves in on his release then everyone's going to be pointing fingers and it might not be him, it might be an innocent man."

Mrs Fergus, her husband Stuart and three sons will visit James's grave on the anniversary of his death.

She says she'll never stop fighting for justice: "That's something I'll never give up. The day I give that up I'll be letting a lot of people down. All the support that I've had over the past 20 years would be undone.

"I'd feel I was letting my family down, and I'd feel I'd be letting James down, I'd be letting myself down. You know if it takes another 20 years I'm going to keep on fighting."

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Two Charged Over Death Of Policewoman

Two men have been charged over the death of a policewoman whose patrol car was hit by a stolen 4x4 in Northern Ireland.

Constable Philippa Reynolds, 27, from the Greater Belfast area, died when the unmarked car she was travelling in turned into the path of the vehicle in Londonderry in the early hours of Saturday morning.

One the men, aged 25, has been charged with 10 offences including causing death by dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking causing death or grievous bodily injury, burglary and driving while unfit.

The other man, aged 23, has been charged with aggravated vehicle taking causing death or grievous bodily injury, burglary, criminal damage and assisting an offender.

They are both due to appear in court in Londonderry later this morning.

Ms Reynolds, a former teacher, had been in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for two years.

Her commander in Derry, Chief Superintendent Stephen Cargin, paid tribute to her in the wake of the crash.

"She was a young 27-year-old officer, just two years' service, in the prime of her life, doing what she loved to do - and that was serving the community to the best of her ability," he said.

"Her colleagues are devastated, as I am as her commander, as we all are as a police service.

"She was enthusiastic, bubbly and had a beautiful personality.

"She was just loved by her colleagues and she turned that love to the community she served."

Ch Supt Cargin said he believed Ms Reynolds, who was sitting in the rear driver's side seat, would have died instantly due to the force of the impact with the silver Toyota Land Cruiser.

Two other officers in the patrol car suffered non-serious injuries.

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Horsemeat Scandal An 'International Conspiracy'

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told Sky News an "international conspiracy" could be at the centre of the horsemeat scandal, and police might begin an investigation.

He made the comments following an emergency meeting with food producers, leading supermarkets and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in central London.

Mr Paterson said it had been agreed that there would be "a very rapid analysis of current products", with results by the end of next week, to understand "the extent of this problem which is either caused by gross incompetence or what I suspect is actually an international criminal conspiracy".

"If there's a criminal act we will work with the authorities wherever they are to ensure the appropriate measures are taken," he said.

The talks came as frozen food company Findus UK said it is considering legal action against its suppliers after tests found up to 100% horsemeat in some of its beef lasagnes.

"Findus is taking legal advice about the grounds for pursuing a case against its suppliers, regarding what they believe is their suppliers' failure to meet contractual obligations about product integrity," the statement said.

"The early results from Findus UK's internal investigation strongly suggests that the horsemeat contamination in Beef Lasagne was not accidental."

Enterprising eBay users have already taken to auctioning the firm's beef lasgnes, with one receiving bids of £12 - with proceeds apparently going towards Help The Heroes charity.

One eBay auction had a Findus lasagne selling for £12

Mr Paterson also warned that the scandal "could go deeper than we thought, and there may be further bad news to come."

Substituting horse for beef was "fraud on the British public" and "people should buy what is on the label," he said.

The Environment Secretary said that retailers held the "ultimate responsibility" for making sure that horsemeat was not in their products and that they would have to start doing their own testing. 

Scotland Yard met with representatives from the FSA on Friday night over the scandal.

During the talks on Saturday morning the supermarkets had agreed to work with the FSA to report their test results on a quarterly basis.

Bosses from leading supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons attended the meeting at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Findus was not invited to the Government summit but the Food and Drink Federation, of which they are a member, attended.

Earlier, Findus reiterated its apology for the scandal, but it came under fire from opposition leader Ed Miliband amid reports the company knew some days before it withdrew its lasagnes from sale that they were likely to contain horsemeat.

Mr Miliband told Sky News: "The head of the company needs to come to Britain and explain himself and who knew what when.

"Many customers were innocently buying Findus products when it appears that the company may have known it was likely to be contaminated by horsemeat."

Findus has strongly denied other reports saying it knew about the problems as early as last August, saying that they first suspected an issue on January 22, when they ordered the initial tests.

The presence of equine DNA was confirmed on January 29 and a product recall was ordered on February 2 after further tests had been conducted.

Aldi meanwhile has confirmed that two of its ready meal ranges produced by Comigel, the French supplier also used by Findus, were found to contain between 30% and 100% horsemeat.

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Snow To Fall Again As Wintry Weather Returns

Forecasters have warned that another burst of wintry weather is due to hit parts of Britain today.

Some areas of central and southern England may see between two and five centimetres of snow in the early hours of Monday morning, potentially making conditions difficult for commuters.

MeteoGroup forecaster Paul Mott said by this evening there will be significant snow developing in central and southern parts of the UK.

"It won't be everywhere, we are thinking of parts of the Midlands, parts of Wales, East Anglia, areas to the north of London," he said.

"London could see a couple of centimetres, but it is more likely in suburban areas north of the capital.

"The snow could make conditions difficult in the Monday morning rush hour, but it is not expected to last long into the day, and temperatures above freezing should see it go."

Sky News meteorologist Chris England said there will be outbreaks of sleet and snow to southern Scotland and northern and eastern England.

"The snow will be mainly on the hills, but will descend to lower levels in the east," he said.

"The afternoon will stay wet for most, with more snow in the north and east. Some heavy, disruptive falls are likely during the evening and overnight."

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