Police were called to Richards and Jerome Ltd on Bradleys Lane at around 11.30pm on Sunday 6 February after members of the local community spotted a break in at the site, which is also known locally as Metal Mickeys.

Officers arrived at the scene within three minutes and arrested two men inside the yard.

Inspector Dale Randle, neighbourhood policing manager for Tipton and Wednesbury, said: “Metal theft is a serious issue in the Black Country and we continue to proactively target offenders believed to be involved in such crime.

“It is often thought that metal theft is a victimless crime however that cannot be further from the truth, as someone always has to pay to replace what has been lost, and in the case of small businesses that cost can be crippling.

“Businesses and homeowners can take simple steps to try and protect themselves, or to help with detection such as making sure security systems are in place and operational, and using anti-vandal paint or DNA marking products that help us to identify offenders and their stolen goods.”

The men, aged 23 and 18, were later charged with burglary and appeared before Warley Magistrates Court today (15 February). 

Motorists are being reminded about a number of road closures in Halesowen during the St George’s celebrations this weekend.

Thousands are expected to gather in Handsworth Park near West Bromwich ,Sandwell to celebrate Vaisakhi on Sunday, 25 April 2010.

The free event is open to all members of the community and will include Sikh cultural activities, arts and crafts exhibitions and on stage entertainment.

Halesowen residents can salute their very own flag with pride after a special flag raising ceremony was held last week.

POLICE are appealing for witnesses to a stabbing incident outside the Wing Wah restaurant in Langley at 11am on Christmas Eve.

The Mayor of Dudley joined staff and service users at a special birthday party at the Brett Young day centre to celebrate its 25^th anniversary. 

Appeal For Help : ELDERLY COUPLE ROBBED ON WAY TO DANCE CLASS

Trading standards officers in Walsall are urging residents to be on their guard against doorstep rogue traders who attempt to trick people into handing over money for unnecessary work.

Self service technology and online planning services are two projects competing to be crowned the winners at this year’s national

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A 71-year-old man from the Black Country is thought to be the UK's oldest father of twins after his 25-year-old wife gave birth to two girls.

Richard Roden, from Walsall, who has 10 other children, said latest additions, Ruby and Emily, are "beautiful".

He first became a father at the age of 20 and has had nine more children with his first and second wives.

With 36 grandchildren Mr Roden said he loved being a father again and they would be trying for more children.

"It's lovely," he told news reporters.

"I love it, I do really. They are beautiful babies and we belong all together, all of us do.

"I wouldn't swap them for the Lottery and there's room for more yet."

A jobless Wolverhampton woman accused of being involved in an international people smuggling operation was caught when customs officers found four illegal immigrants hiding in her camper van, a court heard.

Deborah Minogue, aged 40, was said to be in financial trouble when she was stopped in Hull on September 2, 2008 after driving off the Pride of Brugge ferry. Customs officials who searched her vehicle found three Indian men hidden in a pull down bed above the driver’s cabin.

An Indian boy was also found hiding in the toilet.

Minogue, of Lawfred Avenue, Wednesfield, and Towfik Osman, 31, of Othello Road, Wednesfield, deny a joint charge of conspiring to assist in the unlawful immigration of non European citizens into the UK.

Prosecutor Andrew Wilson told Hull Crown Court that, despite describing herself as a single passenger, Minogue knew she had an illegal cargo. He added that the pair denied knowing each other even though ferry tickets showed them together on the outward bound trip to France from Dover on August 29. Osman was not in the camper van when Minogue was stopped but he was arrested later.

Mr Wilson said: “They were both in difficult financial circumstances, she had a benefit loan, Osman had a huge amount of debt but was found with £900 in cash when he was arrested.”

He said Osman had been “very vague” about who he was travelling with.

He also denied telephoning Minogue but Mr Wilson said at the time the pair were in almost daily contact with each other and paperwork showed Osman was with Minogue when she hired the camper van.

Mr Wilson said it was the crown’s case that the pair had fabricated their lack of links in an effort to disguise the truth and added: “How did these immigrants get in and stay in the camper van without her knowing? All through their interviews the defendants have not given an explanation, reasonable or otherwise, about how they got into that van.”

The trial continues.

Thieves are delaying a £150 million scheme to widen a main stretch of Black Country motorway by stealing and damaging cables.

Urgent work is now being carried out on the M6 between junctions 10 and 10A overnight, sparking anger from families living close by in Beechdale, Walsall, who claim they are now forced to put up with noise 24 hours a day.

A Tipton pub was evacuated after a fire broke out in the kitchen.

The frying range caught fire at the Port ’n’ Ale in Dudley Port at 5.20pm yesterday. Five customers were in the pub. Staff put out the blaze using extinguishers.

Landlord James Earl said: “The damage was minimal, and the fire was out before the fire brigade got here. We are now open as usual.”

The widow of a Wolverhampton father who died after an attack outside a Dudley nightclub is suing two hospitals for up to £300,000 over alleged errors and delays.

Plasterer Simon Williams was treated at the A&E department of Russells Hall Hospital, in Dudley, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, but died within 48 hours of the attack.

His widow Catherine, who lives with their seven-year-old daughter Shannon, in Needwood Drive, Lanesfield, has now served a 13-page writ against the hospitals.

Two drunken thugs murdered a man in Bilston town centre before stealing £20 from his pockets and spending it on a game of pool, a bag of chips and alcohol, a court heard this afternoon.

Jason Talbot and Arthur Henry were playing pool in a pub 10 minutes after beating Peter White to death, the jury was told.

The jury was shown harrowing CCTV footage of Talbot, aged 34, and 45-year-old Henry battering their victim in Church Street at 4.30pm.

Pedestrians are seen walking just yards away as the pair launched a four-minute attack that included punches and kicks.

Mr White, who was 47 and lived in Bilston Road, was beaten to death just a stone’s throw from the town’s bus station.

A man suffered a fractured skull after a fight broke out in a Dudley pub before spilling out into the car park.

The 38-year-old from Withymoor remained in a critical condition at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital today after he was hurt in the brawl at Thorns Inn in Thorns Road, Quarry Bank.

Police were called at 10.45pm on Saturday.

Det Insp Will O’Connor said: “A fight has broken out between two groups and spilled out onto the car park.

“One man has hit his head on the car park which has caused a serious head injury. A number of witnesses have come forward already. How-ever, the bar was fairly busy on Saturday night, and we are appealing for any more witnesses to contact us.”

Three men aged 25, 36 and 43 from Dudley were arrested. They have been released on bail pending further enquiries.

Anyone with information is asked to call CID at Hales-owen police station on 0845 113 5000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Willenhall Town Football Club’s ground has been put up for sale – sparking fears the team could lose its home of 34 years. The move follows receivers being brought in.

Domestic insurance group Homeserve said today it had sold off its loss-making repair services in an £11 million deal. The firm now aims to concentrate on its insurance arm.

Homeserve’s insurance services operation employs 1,300 people at company headquarters in Green Lane, Walsall.

Homeserve announced earlier this summer it planned to sell off the Emergency Services business, set up to supply skilled tradesmen to solve a range of household problems from leaking pipes and faulty wiring to stained carpets.

Because of falling sales and profits, Homeserve had to slash £97 million from the value of the business, which employs 2,400 of Homeserve’s 5,500 strong workforce at bases in Beverley, Norwich and Nottingham.

The Emergency Services operation has now been bought by its own management with finance from Lloyds TSB Development Capital, in Birmingham.

The total sale price is expected to be up to £11m, with £7.2m paid in cash.

In the year to March, the Emergency Services Division lost £2.4m, and Homeserve says it expects to make a loss on the sale of £25m. The new owners are renaming it the Evander Group.

Meanwhile, Homeserve is still exploring options for its Property Repairs arm, which is also facing challenging market conditions.

A three-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after he was hit by a car outside a school in Netherton as pupils finished for the day.

Paramedics were called to Exeter Road near Netherbrook Primary School at 3.25pm yesterday after he was in a collision with a silver Rover on the road near the entrance to the school’s nursery.

The Midlands Air Ambulance landed in the school playing fields before taking the youngster to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

An 18-year-old man has been stabbed several times by a group of men while out walking with his girlfriend in the West Midlands.

The couple were shouted at by a group of five to 10 Asian men in their mid teens and early 20s in Dudley last Friday evening, West Midlands Police said.

The victim was then punched and kicked before being stabbed four times during the incident in Blowers Green Road.

Police said the attack was completely unprovoked and appealed for witnesses.

The man's girlfriend was not injured during the incident.

Det Con Andrew Carley of Brierley Hill CID said officers were concerned by the nature of the attack.

"This young couple were simply walking home when they were attacked by a group of between five and 10 men," he said.

"The incident was completely unprovoked and left this lad with nasty injuries, for which he spent three days in hospital."

Armed robbers posing as police officers tricked staff at a Wolverhampton petrol station into handing over CCTV film before tying them up and stealing thousands of pounds.

Two men, one brandishing a handgun, stole cash from the safe and also snatched £15,000 of cigarettes in the raid on the Total petrol station in Millfields Road, Bilston, last night.

The Bishop of Stafford has warned that the foundations of British society are in danger of collapsing – because families no longer make time to talk or eat meals together.

The Right Reverend Gordon Mursell says the art of conversation which is vital to family life has been replaced by texting and emails.

He has warned the church too could become a “lifeless, dangerous and useless distraction” if it fails to respond to the threat.

The outspoken Bishop earlier this month attacked the “little England mentality” and criticised Britons’ attitude to foreigners.

In his latest speech, delivered at a sermon in Güstrow Cathedral in north-east Germany on Saturday afternoon he criticised the number of youngsters not in work or education and pointed to the fact many families no longer eat meals together.

He said: “22 per cent of our teenagers, aged between 15 and 19-years-old, are not at school or college. In the United States the figure is 21 per cent and in the rest of Europe the figure is 15 per cent.

“In Britain, 33 per cent of our children hardly ever eat a meal with their parents but in the rest of Europe the figure is 17 per cent.”

He attacked modern technology saying: “Children do not talk to grandparents or even parents. The art of talking together, of having a good social conversation, has been replaced by texts and emails. People do still talk together, but nearly all the talking is done electronically, and almost all of it is carried out between people of the same age and background.”

He added: “The Church, in England and in many other parts of Europe, has often become a kind of institution, a structure of authority and power closely linked to the government and the established structures of society around it.”

He warned that unless the church focussed on being a movement looking forward instead of being “preoccupied with its own structures” it would become “lifeless, a dangerous and useless distraction.”

The Bishop was in Germany to mark the 20-year partnership between the Church of England’s Diocese of Lichfield and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg.

A former prison officer who said she was forced out of her job after being bullied because she was pretty has won her case for unfair dismissal.

Amitjo Kajla, 22, said she suffered the abuse at Brinsford Young Offenders' Institution near Wolverhampton.

Her tribunal heard how former colleagues questioned her behaviour with male inmates and suggested she rejected advice about the dress code.

The tribunal has now issued a written judgement backing her claims.

Ms Kajla, who lives in Wolverhampton, also won claims for age and sex discrimination against HM Prison Service (HMPS).

The hearing in Birmingham in July heard Ms Kajla describe how she had been effectively sacked by Brinsford in April 2008 despite having no problems in her previous job at Shrewsbury prison.

'Weak woman'

The written judgement said the tribunal accepted that under the circumstances, the treatment Ms Kajla was subjected to amounted to unfair dismissal.

In a statement, Ms Kajla said: "All I ever did was try to uphold the HMPS purpose statement, which clearly states that their duty is to 'look after prisoners with humanity' and I sought to apply that in my work by treating prisoners with respect.

"However, one officer didn't like my way of working, which was counter to the macho approach he favoured.

"I was seen as a weak woman who could be bullied."

A spokesman for the Prison Service said it was "disappointed" by the tribunal's findings and said it would study them "carefully".

The spokesman added: "The Prison Service takes all allegations of sexual harassment very seriously."

A hearing will be held in early November to determine how much compensation Ms Kajla should receive.

Controversial plans to introduce parking charges at Merry Hill Shopping Centre have been shelved indefinitely, it was revealed today.

Complex owner Westfield said today there were “no current plans” to start forcing shoppers to pay for car parks. It had planned to charge 50p for an hour.

The charges would have gone up to £3.50 for five hours and £1.50 increments for each additional hour.

The plans were opposed by stores at the Brierley Hill centre, which include Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

And today it was confirmed that the move has been dropped.

Pressures on traders brought on by the recession are believed to have led to the decision, which will prove popular with Merry Hill store owners and tens of thousands of shoppers who visit every week.

Sainsbury’s store manager Natalie Walker said today: “This is fantastic news. It will make us more attractive than, for instance, going into the centre of Birmingham where you have to pay to park.”

Westfield development director Neil Huntington said: “There are no current plans to introduce paid parking at Merry Hill.”

However he insisted that the company still aims to bring in some kind of ‘managed car parking’ in the future because of pressure from the Government to force people out of their cars and on to public transport. The decision has upset traders in Dudley town centre, where car parks are pay and display.

Cadbury shares rose almost 40% after it rejected a £10.2bn approach from Kraft Foods, sparking talk of a bidding war.

Kraft said that the purchase of the maker of Dairy Milk would protect jobs in the UK - including saving a factory earmarked for closure.

But Cadbury said the approach "fundamentally" undervalued the firm.

Analysts say Kraft may sweeten its offer. Others could enter the fray, with the prospect of Nestle and Hershey making a joint move being mooted.

"Our initial view is that this represents a competitively pitched offer, but something less than a knockout blow," said Martin Deboo at Investec.

Residents of England are more likely to have their homes repossessed if they live in the North West or the West Midlands, the government suggests.

A new advertising campaign urging people to seek advice when struggling with mortgage payments will be concentrated in these areas.

Some 300,000 people have received advice on the subject since April 2008.

MYSTERY surrounds the death in a house fire of a Halesowen man described by pals as “everybody’s friend” and “the life and soul of the party”.

Barry Jack Allen, 65, died in July last year after sustaining nearly 90 per cent burns as a blaze ripped through his three-storey home in Teme Road.

At an inquest at Dudley Coroner’s Court yesterday, friends and family of the factory worker described how he had suffered on and off from depression but had been in good spirits in the days leading up to his death.

Wolverhampton’s historic Boulton Paul factory has been bought by an American engineering firm in a multi-million pound deal, it was revealed this afternoon.

The GE Aviation factory on Wobaston Road, Fordhouses, employs about 470 people making flight controls for aircraft, including the new RAF Typhoon jet fighter.

It is being sold to Moog, a £1 billion precision engineering firm making controls and systems for aircraft, missiles, satellites and space vehicles as well as industrial and medical equipment.

A group calling itself the English Defence League, said to be protesting against Islamic extremism, met with a counter demonstration in Birmingham City Centre.

It was a Dunne deal at Villa today took their summer spending to £40m after finally confirming the signing of Manchester City skipper Richard Dunne.

Republic of Ireland captain Dunne has ended his nine-year spell with City by making a £6m switch from Eastlands.

The Premier League asked for more time to ratify the deal despite Villa starting to submit the relevant documents before 4pm yesterday – an hour before the transfer window formally closed.

But Villa were always confident Dunne would become their player after passing a medical and agreeing personal terms.

The FA were also satisfied with the paperwork presented by Villa but needed the approval of the Premier League.

Dunne becomes Villa’s second defensive capture after Welsh international James Collins signed from West Ham yesterday for £5m.

Manager Martin O’Neill has been desperate to bolster his back four after skipper Martin Laursen retired and Zat Knight was sold to Bolton. He said: “Richard Dunne is the kind of person we are looking for.”

Dunne’s days at Eastlands appeared to be numbered after the arrival of Kolo Toure from Arsenal and then former Wolves star Joleon Lescott from Everton.

Villa started the current campaign with only two experienced centre-backs in Curtis Davies and Carlos Cuellar.

The need for new blood became even more pressing after Davies started to suffer more regular recurrences of his long standing shoulder problem and he may need surgery.

O’Neill was forced to blood 19-year-old Ciaran Clark alongside Cuellar in Sunday’s 2-0 home win over Fulham.

Villa agreed a fee last week with City for Dunne but the deal dragged on past the weekend because the player wanted to sort out financial issues relating to the remaining three years of his contract.

Dunne would have been entitled to a testimonial next summer.

With its bright white walls and floor-to-ceiling glass panels, this building looks like a new state-of-the-art leisure centre.

But this picture actually reveals how a new superprison in a village near Wolverhampton will look. The contemporary jail, which will house 1,620 inmates, is set to be built next to the current Featherstone Prison and Brinsford Young Offenders Institution. The prison was given outline planning permission in January.

DUDLEY Primary Care Trust’s Public Health Department has entered into an exciting partnership with The Life Channel out-of-home television network in an effort to get key health and well-being messages across to patients.

Already 31 out of Dudley PCT’s 64 GP surgeries currently have The Life Chanel installed.

The Life Channel broadcasts health information into surgeries, giving patients something useful to watch while they are waiting for their appointment.

This innovative network gives doctors’ surgeries the unique opportunity to communicate directly to people most affected by vital health issues; promote awareness of local needs; and encourage behaviour change across a range of issues including healthier lifestyles and self-management of chronic conditions.

The content displayed comes from Dudley PCT and national awareness campaigns, which is delivered in an easy to understand 'magazine' style, on a 90 minute loop.

The programmes shown can also be edited at local or practice level, giving doctors' surgeries their own television channel.

Valerie Little, Director of Public Health for Dudley PCT, said: "Dudley Primary Care Trust is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of local people by supporting them to make healthy lifestyle choices".

"Healthier lifestyles really can make a big difference and enable people to have much longer, healthier lives. Working with The Life Channel to get these messages across to local people while they are accessing NHS services will be a key tool in helping us achieve this goal."

Former partners of a lorry driver suspected of killing a nine-year-old girl have given information to police.

Northamptonshire Police said they also had a statement from a woman who claims Darren Walker, 40, made a sexual approach to her when she was 15.

Stacey Lawrence, of West Bromwich in the West Midlands, was found strangled in a lorry off the A605 at Warmington on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Walker, her mother's boyfriend, was found hanged in woods nearby.

Police believe some "sexual touching" of Stacey may have taken place.

A former BBC television presenter who hit a teenager with a wooden pole in a fight outside a West Midlands bar has been jailed for two years.

Ashley Blake was found guilty of wounding Greg Jones, 17, and intending to pervert the course of justice.

Blake, 40, who presented Midlands Today, was sacked following his conviction at Birmingham Crown Court.

He had denied the attack outside The Place 2B restaurant in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

Jurors heard he swung a patio umbrella pole above his head, hitting the teenager in the face.

A West Midlands woman has been missing since Tuesday after failing to arrive for work at a post office.

Christine Fletcher, 57, from Austrey Road, Kingswinford, was last seen by her husband at about 0745 BST.

Her car has been found abandoned near a car park at the Nimmings Road visitors' centre on the Clent Hills.

West Midlands Police said Mrs Fletcher has not been missing before and the force was becoming "increasingly concerned" for her welfare.

One of the Black Country's last remaining public swimming baths is due to shut later.

Dudley Council said essential repairs to Coseley Swimming Pool would be too costly and it could not afford for them to go ahead.

Recent safety checks showed repairs to the building, which first opened in 1963, would cost in excess of £2m.

In April, more than 30 people, including children, had to be taken to hospital after a chlorine leak there.

Across the rest of the Black Country, pools still remain in Dudley, Stourbridge and Halesowen