A FAMILY is paying off a phone bill of hundreds of pounds after falling victim to an internet dial-up con. When her monthly bill was around 16 times the usual sum, Sue Cracknell realised something was not right. But even as she made enquiries with her
A TEENAGE tearaway who went on a two-week crime spree and shattered an 88-year-old woman's confidence by breaking into her home as she slept has been sent to a young offenders' centre for four years. Bournemouth Crown Court heard how the 15-year-old had
FIREFIGHTERS used an inflatable boat to rescue a driver from floods when he became stranded at a notorious spot on the river Stour on Monday. And a senior officer has issued a warning that current weather conditions could result in deaths unless drivers
RINGWOOD mayor Michael Thierry believes he was involved in Britain's most expensive two-car crash of 2004 when his Volkswagen was in collision with a £600,000 Ferrari. Town and district councillor Mr Thierry, who holds New Forest District Council's environment
DETECTIVES investigating a robbery at a Bournemouth massage parlour have released e-fit pictures of two suspects. Officers have urged anyone who recognises the two men to come forward and speak to them in confidence. The robbery took place shortly after
"WE got our sex education by watching the rabbits," wrote Hugh Elmes in his new book that looks back on growing up in Wareham. And he added: "It's amazing what you will do for a carrot!" Hugh's book, called "As I knew It ... Wareham in the 1950s" is sub-headed
AS MARRIAGES go it has to be one of the longest in the land - 67 years and counting. When Mike Hadden married his bride Elaine in 1937 he was a medical student and so poor that he could not afford to have a photographer to capture the event. And the couple
JULIET and Andy Wyevale own a second-hand car dealership in London and are finding the going tough. Unfortunately their relationship is going downhill too. Andy works too hard and doesn't make time for Juliet and their children and he has started to lose
BROCKENHURST player-manager Graham Kemp has revealed he offered his resignation to chairman Brian Small following his side's grim defeat to Portland United on Saturday December 18. Brock are finding it hard to repeat their heroics of last season when
TESCO and Asda are battling it out to be Britain's cheapest supermarket chain. Asda has held the title for the past seven years, based on surveys by trade magazine The Grocer. But its larger rival has closed the gap in recent months and was cheaper than
A TRADING standards officer working undercover bought unclassified pornographic videos from a Bournemouth sex shop, a court heard. Verwood-based company Crownville pleaded guilty to 10 charges of possessing and supplying illegal DVDs and videos. Prosecutor
THIS year's Mayflower Christmas show - a spectacular new version of J M Barrie's 100-year-old children's favourite Peter Pan - opened at the weekend with ticket sales of more than £1 million. The lavish new show boasts a cast headed by popular TV and
GLOWING praise for Dorchester's festive lights was broadcast live across the nation this morning. Breakfast television show GMTV made a visit to see how the county town had thrown off its Scrooge image. From the studio in London, anchorman Eamonn Holmes
Lorries drive home the Olympic bid message TRUCKS will be driving home the 2012 message from Weymouth and Portland after they were launched on a Back The Bid day. Olympians Sarah Ayton and Nick Dempsey unveiled the first lorry to be branded with the London
DORSET Wildlife Trust is shaping the landscape to attract endangered water voles to the county. The conservation charity is restoring ditches and creating rushy grassland at Nunnery Mead nature reserve, on the River Frome near Frampton, in the hope of
CHRISTMAS celebrations helped big-hearted pupils net well over £1,000 for charities. Students of All Saints School in Wyke Regis raised a record-breaking total of £1,870 in their last week of term. The Christmas variety show made £1,420, the annual Christmas
DRIVERS are risking lives by treating a village's roads like a racetrack, claim councillors. Parish councillors and residents say they risk life and limb walking from one end of Sopley to the other. Hampshire County Council checks have clocked cars and
A FRUSTRATED pensioner has demanded tougher action on the vandals he claims are dragging into the gutter the quiet Christchurch housing estate where he lives. Grandfather Brian Hobbis was so fed up he prepared a special dossier cataloguing acts of vandalism
AGE Concern is calling on wealthy pensioners to donate their annual winter fuel payments to help elderly people struggling to keep warm during the icy weather. The Bournemouth branch is warning that plunging temperatures can kill - more than 20,000 older
THE mastermind behind a passport forging operation has turned his hand to making Christmas cards for charity. Igor Kopcov, 40, was arrested at his home in Queensland Road, Bournemouth, in 2002 when police officers seized 39 false passports and 17 passports
THE boss of Yellow Buses has issued a rallying call to staff to face the future in a positive frame of mind. Employees at the bus company have reacted with anger to the shock news that the council-owned firm is being put up for sale. And union officials
A WOMAN watched in horror with her two young children as her husband was swept away by strong sea currents, an inquest has heard. Pioneering climber Damian Cook, 34, from Boscombe drowned off the coast of Majorca earlier this year, after he tried to scale
A THREE-year-old boy was hit by scaffolding as a mini tornado roared through Dorset and Hampshire on December 17. The boy was struck by a six-foot wooden plank which fell from the roof of the Royal Arcade in Boscombe. It appeared to have been torn from
WORKING at the plant which made the legendary Spitfire aeroplanes during the Second World War left such an impression on a Fordingbridge woman that she decided to write down her recollections of that time in a memoir for her family. But by starting work
ROD Davis is one of those fortunate golfers who can capture his best form even though he plays only rarely. The manager of the Iford Golf Centre emerged from a lengthy lay-off to win the PGA West Region Bournemouth Festival in September at Meyrick Park
A MAN has spoken of the terrifying moment he was attacked in his own home by three men armed with metal bars. Peter Lehola, 42, thought he was going to die as the men set about hitting him over the head, neck and back with their weapons. The father-of-two
PHIL Simkin said an emotional farewell to the club he has served for 24 years at the Avenue Stadium last night. More than 500 fans turned up on a damp and icy night to watch his testimonial game in which a young West Ham side beat a Simkin Xl 3-2 and
STEVE Johnson won't be appealing against the dismissal of Jason Matthews at Bishop's Stortford ten days ago. The Terras boss made his decision after studying video evidence of the goalkeeper's sending off. Matthews was given his marching orders for handling
A FRENCH journalist stood on the deck of the Barfleur and gazed in surprise across Brownsea at the wooded islands and hills beyond. He was making his first visit from Cherbourg - Poole's nearest cross-Channel neighbour - and said he had never realised
PIRATES new boy Ray Morton has vowed to silence any critics who view his surprise full-time move back into the Elite League as bad for him and negative for the club. Poole RIAS confirmed yesterday that the 36-year-old racer had joined them on loan after
A COUNCIL wants to buy a rubbish-filled house considered an eyesore by neighbours. Residents of Lennox Street in Weymouth's Park District described how the three-storey terraced home at number 35 was blighting their lives. And Weymouth and Portland Borough
CHARGES against a pensioner accused of drink-driving in his invalid carriage were withdrawn on a rare legal exemption Thomas David Sheen, 67, of Bridlebank Way, Weymouth, had pleaded guilty to the offence on Weymouth Esplanade on November 3 at an earlier
A DISABLED woman has been left heartbroken at Christmas after her dog died just weeks after she got it from a rescue home. Mary Miller, who has osteoporosis and arthritis, also spent more than £1,600 on the dog, which turned out to have a fatal brain
YOUNG footballers were riding high with cup glory after winning new sponsorship from a scooter club. Pupils at St Mary's Middle School in Puddletown claimed silverware in the finals of the South and West Dorset indoor five-a-side contests just after being
THIS historic carriage clock is small in size but big in value. Auctioneers were left stunned when the late 19th century timepiece, measuring just 10 inches in height, fetched nearly £20,000 when it went under the hammer. Dukes of Dorchester, which held
PLANS for a multi-million- pound refurbishment of a North Dorset school have been unveiled - just days after work on a massive extension at the site came to a halt. Workmen were expected back at the Shaftesbury School yesterday after the main contractor
DIOGO Andrade's dreams of earning a contract with Cherries are over. The Portuguese winger, who has been training with the squad since the summer in the hope of earning a permanent deal, has been playing for Nationwide Conference South outfit Dorchester
BRETT Pitman made a last-minute dash to take his place among the Cherries substitutes on Saturday - just hours after he had scored a hat-trick for the youth team in Exeter. The 16-year-old striker received the call as he was getting changed at Exeter's
AT the end of last week I popped down to Bournemouth Square to write a report for this newspaper on the campaign to save Moldavian student Andrei Bazanov from deportation. The campaign was the brainchild of his former fellow students at Bournemouth School
DO you worry about "globesity"? Well, maybe you should. What is it? Why, it's a noun, of course, describing a perceived epidemic of overweight people. Perhaps you've been too busy worrying about a "chavalanche" hitting your neighbourhood. A what? Oh come
