Exmoor man held by police investigating Devon 'bilking' offences

POLICE in Devon today arrested an Exmoor man on charges of ‘bilking’ - which is when a customer leaves without paying for goods or services.
The 57-year-old, from Dulverton, was accused of filling his car with petrol and then driving off without paying at a number of garages across Devon.
He was arrested following a Tavistock police investigation into a series of bilking offences which occurred at supermarket filling stations in Devon.
On each occasion a Rover 600 car was filled with unleaded petrol and then driven off by a man without paying for the fuel.
Only supermarket filling stations were targeted and police said the culprit seemed to be aware of CCTV monitoring as he took care to conceal his face, while different registration numbers were used on the car.
Two offences happened in Tavistock exactly a year apart, on November 29, 2007, and November 29, 2008, while other offences occurred in Totnes, Exeter, and Barnstaple.
The arrested man was being held in custody at Exeter Police Station.

Magistrates order Minehead manslaughter charge teenagers to be kept in custody

TWO young men have been kept in custody after appearing in court on charges of the manslaughter of 36-year-old Tim Chilcott, of Minehead.
Nineteen-year-old Shaun Wylds, of Lower Meadow Road, Alcombe, Minehead, and a 16-year-old, of Porlock, whom the law prevents from being identified, appeared before Taunton Deane magistrates sitting in Taunton this afternoon, Tuesday, January 22.
They were accused of killing Mr Chilcott, who suffered serious head injuries in an early-hours attack in Minehead town centre on Sunday and who died in hospital 36 hours later after being on a life-support machine.
Applications by their solicitors for the pair to be freed on bail were refused by the magistrates and they were instead remanded in custody.
Wylds and his co-defendant will now appear in Exeter Crown Court next Tuesday, January 29.
A third man arrested in connection with the killing of Mr Chilcott was released on police bail pending further inquiries before today's court hearing. He is 18-years-old.

Two women rescued from Exmoor farm machinery

AN air ambulance rushed an Exmoor woman to hospital early on Sunday, December 2, after firefighters freed her from beneath a farm vehicle.
The unnamed woman became trapped under a four-wheel drive Kawasaki Mule utility vehicle (example pictured) on a farm near Dulverton at about 8.30 am.
Another woman who tried to release her also became trapped and had to be rescued by the fire and rescue crew from Dulverton.
It took more than half-an-hour for the firemen to stabilise the vehicle and release both women, the first of whom was then put on board the waiting helicopter to be flown to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, in Exeter.
Paramedics on board a road ambulance also attended the scene.

• Fire and rescue crews also attended three Exmoor properties which were experiencing flooding overnight on Saturday-Sunday in the Exford and Bridgetown area, near Dulverton.
  Crews from Dulverton and Porlock were called out and they used light portable pumps to remove water and also helped to clear up with mops and buckets.