Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Jersey spuds smashed by Brexit crisis
A SHORTAGE of Jersey potatoes is being predicted as Brexit has led to foreign workers going home.
Farmers on the Channel Island say they do not have enough labourers to plant and harvest crops.
And prices will rise sharply if there are fewer spuds on shelves, they say.
Polish seasonal workers are heading home – with the weak pound, their improving economy and the shaky UK divorce from Europe all key factors.
Jersey royals producer Charlie Gallichan said: “We are desperately short of labour. We will be losing crops before long.”
Unite the union blasted farmers for paying paltry wages, adding: “If people are well treated then problems of recruitment are likely to be resolved.” THE Hatton Garden jewel raiders have been warned they face longer prison terms – unless they repay nearly £14million to their victims.
The stolen loot includes nearly £3million of pearls owned by one man, a confiscation hearing was told yesterday.
Gold, jewels and cash from the holein-wall raid was worth a minimum of £13.69 million, the court was told.
Earlier police estimates had put the haul at £25million, but only £14million can be proved to have been taken.
The figure includes recovered goods. The gang ransacked 73 boxes at the vault in London’s jewellery quarter after boring a huge hole in the wall with a diamond-tipped drill. Prosecutor Philip Evans told the proceeds of crime hearing at Woolwich crown court, South East London: “The amount to be repaid by these individual defendants remains subject to argument.”
Only Daniel Jones, 63, and John “Kenny” Collins, 77, were present in the dock, and neither spoke except to confirm their names.
Mastermind Brian Reader, 78, and Terry Perkins, 69, were said to be too ill to appear, but will be present at later hearings. They will not give evidence. Mohammad Jabir, thought to be the owner of around £2.9million worth of pearls, only reported them missing nearly two years after the burglary. He has since died but will still have his written evidence submitted, the court heard. In March 2016, Collins, Jones, Perkins and William Lincoln were each given a seven-year prison term. Reader is contesting the amount he is liable to repay as he walked off the job and claims he never got a share.