:00:09. > :00:11.Good evening. He was a "Mr Big" who you are.
:00:12. > :00:14.Good evening. He was a "Mr Big" who masterminded a multi`million pound
:00:15. > :00:17.plan to flood the region with drugs. But now, dealer Ben Crombie claims
:00:18. > :00:20.he's "ashamed" of the damage drug`pushers like him do. Crombie's
:00:21. > :00:24.written to a judge expressing remorse. But tonight he and his gang
:00:25. > :00:30.are starting long jail terms. Our news correspondent Peter Harris,
:00:31. > :00:34.reports. This was described as an industrial
:00:35. > :00:37.scale conspiracy to flood to Teesside with heroin and cocaine,
:00:38. > :00:44.and it was headed by a man called Ben Crombie. He's from Manchester.
:00:45. > :00:48.He lived the lifestyle of a Mr Big. He had a flash house and flash car.
:00:49. > :00:53.His children were privately educated. All this paid for by
:00:54. > :00:57.drugs. Today he got 14 years yet he claims to have seen the light since.
:00:58. > :01:01.When he was arrested and put into prison he said he then realised the
:01:02. > :01:04.damage that people like himself do to society, because he came across
:01:05. > :01:12.lots of inmates who themselves had drug problems. That, though, today
:01:13. > :01:16.cut no ice with drugs charities. Feeding your own habit is one thing
:01:17. > :01:22.but dealing to feed nothing and just gain money out of other people's
:01:23. > :01:25.misery is sickening. The way this worked was that there were couriers
:01:26. > :01:30.bringing drugs across from Manchester to Teesside, over the
:01:31. > :01:34.M62. It went on for more than a year and it is possible all this was
:01:35. > :01:37.worth millions of pounds. In all, 22 people were sentenced today and this
:01:38. > :01:42.is one of the biggest drugs cases our region has seen. Ultimately
:01:43. > :01:46.those drugs brought over here will go to street level people, and it is
:01:47. > :01:53.the effects when you walk around the town and see drug addicts and users.
:01:54. > :01:56.That's the effect this has on the town and by taking such significant
:01:57. > :02:02.amounts out that we have through the operation, it does have a massive
:02:03. > :02:05.impact. Two of the biggest sentences today went to two Teesside
:02:06. > :02:11.criminals, Robert Hickman and Scott McGowan, who got 16 and 15 years
:02:12. > :02:15.respectively. Just to show you the scale of this operation, we can show
:02:16. > :02:18.you something of a family tree which Cleveland Police got together just
:02:19. > :02:20.to show how many people were involved in this conspiracy to flood
:02:21. > :02:31.Teesside with drugs. Firefighters have held the latest in
:02:32. > :02:34.their series of strikes, in a long`running dispute over pensions.
:02:35. > :02:38.And there'll be two more days of strikes over the bank holiday
:02:39. > :02:41.weekend. The Fire Brigades' Union says Government plans to change
:02:42. > :02:44.pensions and the retirement age are unfair. But the Government says
:02:45. > :02:47.firefighters have "one of the most generous pension schemes in the
:02:48. > :02:55.public sector." Phil Chapman reports from the picket line in Harrogate.
:02:56. > :02:58.As the pickets continue into tomorrow and Sunday, fire chiefs
:02:59. > :03:02.still on duty are asking people to take extra care as we head into a
:03:03. > :03:05.bank holiday weekend. We have normally half the number of fire
:03:06. > :03:11.engines during the strike period and that is through this weekend. With
:03:12. > :03:14.it being a bank holiday, we expect a few more people on the road and
:03:15. > :03:16.people doing leisure activities, barbecues and the like.. We're
:03:17. > :03:22.hoping people take extra care, knowing we have limited resources.
:03:23. > :03:25.The Government says under the current deal on the table a
:03:26. > :03:30.firefighter who earns ?29,000 a year was still be able to retire after a
:03:31. > :03:33.full career at 60 and get a ?19,000 a year pension. An equivalent
:03:34. > :03:37.private pension pot would be worth more than ?500,000 but the FBU,
:03:38. > :03:39.which is also striking over other cuts and plans to raise
:03:40. > :03:46.firefighters' retirement age from 55 to 60, says the Government has
:03:47. > :03:50.ignored negotiation deadlines. The Fire Brigades' Union has been left
:03:51. > :03:53.with no option because they did give the government a deadline of 24
:03:54. > :03:56.April after 17 weeks of negotiations, and this was the
:03:57. > :04:01.earliest opportunity we had to take industrial action, and it is with
:04:02. > :04:04.deep regret we are doing this. Meanwhile, people using businesses
:04:05. > :04:07.affected by a major fire in Harrogate in March weren't all
:04:08. > :04:17.sympathetic TO the firefighters' cause. They are an emergency
:04:18. > :04:22.service, you don't go on strike. This fire went on for five hours,
:04:23. > :04:26.still smouldered overnight. How bad could it have been? It is appalling.
:04:27. > :04:30.I do support the men getting what they are asking for, but on the
:04:31. > :04:34.other hand when there is a fire we need them there, so it's a really
:04:35. > :04:37.hard call. Everybody wants to make sure their pensions are OK, so,
:04:38. > :04:42.yeah, they have got to do what they have to do. The FBU is now hoping
:04:43. > :04:45.even more people will understand what they're trying to achieve this
:04:46. > :04:49.weekend with even more call`outs, for 12 hours from 2pm tomorrow
:04:50. > :04:59.afternoon and for five hours from 10am on Sunday.
:05:00. > :05:02.It's been revealed that 57 people were given jobs as front`line
:05:03. > :05:05.ambulance staff in the North East ` despite having unknown criminal
:05:06. > :05:10.convictions. No background checks had been carried out on ambulance
:05:11. > :05:13.staff for four years. The North East Ambulance Service has been issued
:05:14. > :05:15.with a formal warning by the health watchdog, The Care Quality
:05:16. > :05:18.Commission. The Ambulance Service says the convictions were mainly for
:05:19. > :05:21.minor offences, some dating back many years. Following a risk
:05:22. > :05:29.assessment, 54 of the staff have been allowed to return to their
:05:30. > :05:33.front line jobs. The car maker, Nissan, is to drop a
:05:34. > :05:36.shift on one of its production lines, with the loss of 365 posts.
:05:37. > :05:40.All those affected are on temporary contracts. In the last two years,
:05:41. > :05:43.the workforce has grown by 2000. 24`hour operations were introduced
:05:44. > :05:46.across the site in January, but market conditions mean Line two will
:05:47. > :05:53.return to two`shift operations from mid`June. Management says it's not a
:05:54. > :05:56.case of backtracking. We went to three`shifts to meet the
:05:57. > :06:00.regional launch peak where we fill in dealers and the pipeline up, and
:06:01. > :06:04.we always intended that the three`shift operation in Line two
:06:05. > :06:07.would reduce in volume. As it transpires, it is lower than what we
:06:08. > :06:14.anticipated slightly, and we've always operated at the bottom end of
:06:15. > :06:17.the three`shift. It has tipped us under into the top end of
:06:18. > :06:23.two`shifts, so we will move the two`shifts because for business that
:06:24. > :06:27.is the right thing to do. That's it from me tonight. Have a
:06:28. > :06:30.great weekend. It's time now to see how the bank holiday weekend
:06:31. > :06:31.weather's looking. Paul Mooney has all the details. Will it be nice
:06:32. > :06:34.Paul? weather's looking. Paul Mooney has
:06:35. > :06:40.all the There were some decent weather for most of us. It won't be
:06:41. > :06:51.100% driver all of us. Overnight it be dry. That is a recipe for a cold
:06:52. > :06:59.night, much colder than recently. Even the towns and cities are coming
:07:00. > :07:06.close to freezing. It is slightly less colder further west with a bit
:07:07. > :07:13.more cloud. Tomorrow, most places will stay dry. That cloud or thick
:07:14. > :07:20.and other through the day. The winds will be light and after temperatures
:07:21. > :07:27.will peak at 13 Celsius. The rest of the weekend. Sunday has patchy rain
:07:28. > :07:31.at times. Brighter on Monday. Here is the full national forecast.
:07:32. > :07:38.the rest of the weekend. Now look at the Outlook with Nick Miller.
:07:39. > :07:43.Neuer-macro don't worry, this is not the repeat. It is live. This is the
:07:44. > :07:47.forecast you are more likely to see in January than May, but this is a
:07:48. > :07:50.cold night for the time of year. We have got some cloud coming into the
:07:51. > :07:55.West, stopping the temperature going down too far. It may produce light
:07:56. > :08:00.rain later in the night, maybe a rogue shower from patchy cloud in
:08:01. > :08:04.East Anglia. For most, dry, clear, temperatures are on the way down and
:08:05. > :08:09.will end up lower than this in the coldest rural spots by morning. -4
:08:10. > :08:14.in rural Scotland in the coldest moral spots in southern England, so
:08:15. > :08:19.gardeners take note, frost for some of us are begins. What about the
:08:20. > :08:24.rest of the weekend? High pressure is here as it begins. You may think,
:08:25. > :08:27.great, settled weather, it does protect the south and east of the UK
:08:28. > :08:33.but Atlantique weather fronts coming to the north and west, giving some
:08:34. > :08:38.rain at times. First, for tomorrow, it is a fine start. Chilly, a lot of
:08:39. > :08:40.dry weather around from the word go. Quite a bit of sunshine. The first
:08:41. > :08:42.Atlantique