Today's most viewed
| ECHO NEWS | |  | | | | | | | | FEATURES | | | | | | | SOUTHEND UNITED | | | | HEALTH | | | | | | | COMING UP IN YOUR ECHO | |
|
|
|
Arcade boss's fear of Eastern European scam gang
AN amusement arcade boss says his staff are living in fear of reprisals after police failed to catch a gang of Eastern European thugs.
The gang tried to fleece more than £1,000 from Graham Rawlingson's Southend seafront amusement arcade in a gaming machine scam.
Mr Rawlingson says he tipped off police the men were to return to Fantasia Amusement Arcade, hoping they would arrest them.
He is furious officers left a marked police car outside in Eastern Esplanade, effectively warning the gang they'd been rumbled.
Soon afterwards, he says the casino started getting threatening phone calls.
"A marked squad car parked right out the front," he said. "Of course, the men didn't show up and a couple of hours later, we started getting phone calls.
"We are sitting down here frightened and waiting to see what will happen. We don't know what these guys are going to do or what they are capable of. How am I supposed to protect my staff?"
The gang had found a way of getting free credit on slot machines and ran up £1,280 of credits on Wednesday afternoon.
The gang tried to arrange to come back and collect the money, so Mr Rawlingson called the police.
Police spokesman Heather Turner declined to comment on the case, other than to say: "We are taking this incident seriously and will be investigating."
9:09am Tuesday 13th May 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: dave turner on 9:45am Tue 13 May 08
How brave of Heather Turner to make such a statement, does she not take all incidents seriously.
After all she is employed by the Council tax payees meaning that she is a Civil SERVANT to us.
How brave of Heather Turner to make such a statement, does she not take all incidents seriously.
After all she is employed by the Council tax payees meaning that she is a Civil SERVANT to us.
Posted by: Tony Winchester, W-O-s on 12:21pm Tue 13 May 08
Only taken seriously if complaint against Native British,
Otherwise its a help yourself country we live in.
Only taken seriously if complaint against Native British,
Otherwise its a help yourself country we live in.
Posted by: Camperman, Essex on 1:24pm Tue 13 May 08
We will shortly become more like the USA with Private Police/Detective teams and Security guards who are paid directly for a service. If they do not meet standards of performance they are sacked on the spot.
Vigilante groups also look after residents 'patches'.
Our UK police 'force' are a joke and I am sure will have to concede defeat soon without outside help.
We will shortly become more like the USA with Private Police/Detective teams and Security guards who are paid directly for a service. If they do not meet standards of performance they are sacked on the spot.
Vigilante groups also look after residents 'patches'.
Our UK police 'force' are a joke and I am sure will have to concede defeat soon without outside help.
Posted by: Nick BURTON, Southend on 1:44pm Tue 13 May 08
[bold][bold]Silly Boys You cannot get the staff nowdays[/bold]
Silly Boys You cannot get the staff nowdays
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
