Leeds University students snowed in for two days at highest pub in UK
Snow plough and gritter finally end drawn-out New Year party after cross country club gets cut off in cold snap
-Leeds: the facts and figures
Leeds is the ‘capital city’ of Yorkshire & Humber; it’s also the financial capital of the North, and one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Some of the country's leading household names in banking and insurance services are based in the city: First Direct, GE Capital, Alliance & Leicester, Halifax Direct and Direct Line.
Leeds Metropolitan District spans 15 miles east to west and 13 miles north to south, covering 217 square miles at the geographical heart of the UK, of which 65% is greenbelt land. Leeds is surrounded by an extensive suburban and rural area containing free-standing towns such as Wetherby, Rothwell, Morley and Otley, plus numerous attractive villages.
The city enjoys excellent transport links and an advanced communications infrastructure, making it the perfect place to do business. Leeds has seen £3.5bn of investment in major commercial, retail and residential property developments over the last decade. A further £7.3bn of projects are in progress or in the pipeline.
Leeds is a major employment centre for adjacent districts. Out of a total workforce in West Yorkshire of 936,000, nearly half (that’s 442,000 people) work in Leeds.
Service industries as a whole account for over 80% of total employment, including the city's largest employers: Leeds City Council (33,000); Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust (14,000); and in the private sector companies such as ASDA, Yorkshire Bank, Ventura (all with their HQ's here); Barclays, Natwest, HSBC and TSB Lloyds Banks, British Gas and BT (all with their regional offices here).
Leeds’ population
- 750,000 people make Leeds the second-largest metropolitan district in England.
Business in Leeds
- 112,000 people work in the city’s financial and business sectors
- Leeds is the UK’s third-largest manufacturing centre, with 1,800 companies employing over 39,000 people. It has recognised strengths in advanced engineering, printing, chemicals and food industries
- The city is fast developing as a centre for the new, online economy.
- The city's media, communications & advertising sector is growing by about 10% a year.
Leeds’ economy
- The city has the most diverse economy in the UK
- Leeds has a GVA of £15.4bn
- Around a third of GVA is generated by the financial & business services sectors.
Transport in Leeds
- Leeds Bradford International Airport serves 70 destinations in 30 countries, including North America and Asia
- Leeds is linked by road to London and Edinburgh via the M1 and A1 and to the east and west coast ports via the M62
- London Kings Cross can be reached by rail in just over two hours
- Manchester International Airport can be reached in just over an hour by road or direct rail link.
Telecommunications
- BT regards Leeds as its second city, so advanced is the design and efficiency of equipment. It is the headquarters of BT Applied Technology and of BT's Northern Region which covers the whole of the north of England and Scotland
- Across the city, all BT exchanges are broadband-enabled, providing both homes and business with fast track access to the internet
- Thorpe Park, one of the largest business parks in Europe, has been selected as one of BT's strategic eLocations. Premises are pre-equipped with the latest telecommunications infrastructure, including robust dual optical-fibre network.
Tourism and leisure in Leeds
- Leeds is home to the West Yorkshire Playhouse (staging more productions each year than any other theatre outside London), Opera North, the Northern Ballet and the Phoenix Dance Company
- The city centre has 2 miles of traffic-free shopping and over 1,000 shops
- Leeds is one of the greenest cities in Europe, with greenbelt land covering over two-thirds of its total area
- The city centre is less than 20 miles from the Yorkshire Dales National Park
- Leeds was named ‘Best Place in Britain to Live’ by Henley Management Centre
- It was also named ‘The UK’s Favourite City’ by Condé Nast Traveller Magazine.
Education in Leeds
- Leeds is one of the top student destinations in the UK and the University of Leeds is one of the UK's top ten research universities
- There are over 200,000 students here, 64,000 of whom are degree students at Leeds’ two internationally acclaimed universities
- Leeds Metropolitan University is home to the largest business school of its kind, and is rated in the top 50 globally
- The Independent called Leeds the ‘Best UK University Destination’.
Leeds United are a professional association football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club's home ground is Elland Road.
The club's most common nicknames are "The Whites" and "The Peacocks". The latter stems from the former name of the Elland Road, The Old Peacock Ground, which was in turn named after The Old Peacock pub opposite Elland Road's South Stand and The New Peacock pub which stood behind the North stand (where the M621 now runs)[2] Although the club name bears the "AFC" suffix,[3] the current badge displays "LUFC". However, previous badges have included the official suffix in its entirety.[4]
The club have competed at the top level of English football for the majority of their existence, following the disbanding of predecessor Leeds City. Under the management of Don Revie during the 1960s and 1970s, Leeds won two First Division titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup twice. After Revie's departure to manage the England team, Leeds were relegated to the Second Division in 1982, not returning to the top flight until 1990, when they were managed by Howard Wilkinson. Leeds were league champions two seasons later, in 1992. During the 1990s and early 2000s Leeds competed for places in Europe, reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League in consecutive seasons. However, after severe financial difficulties and a mass sale of players, Leeds were relegated from the Premier League and subsequently from The Championship three years later. After three seasons in League One they were promoted back to the Championship on the last day of the 2009-10 season.
2. Leeds City were formed in 1904 but disbanded by the Football League in 1919, and Leeds United were voted into the Midland League on 31 October 1919.
3. Leeds’ first kit was blue and white stripes and modelled on close rivals Huddersfield, whose chairman – Mr Hilton Crowther – loaned Leeds United £35,000 to be repaid when the club were promoted to Division One. Crowther later attempted to merge the two clubs.
4. Leeds then switched to blue and yellow halved shirts and they didn’t adopt their famous all white strip until 1961, when Don Revie introduced it with the hope of emulating Real Madrid.
5. Elland Road was originally known as The Old Peacock Ground and was the reason behind one of Leeds’ early nicknames, The Peacocks.
6. March 15th 1967 is the date that 57,892 crammed into Elland Road – Leeds’ record attendance – for an FA Cup fifth round replay withSunderland.
7. Leeds’ record transfer fee paid is £18m to West Ham United for Rio Ferdinand in November 2000.
8. Not only is Don Revie Leeds’ most successful manager ever, he is also the longest serving having been in post between 1961-1974.
9. Legendary centre forward John Charles once bagged 42 league goals in a season when he ripped apart Division Two defences in 1953-54.
10. The Kaiser Chiefs are big Leeds United fans, and the group was named after the side that former Leeds centre half Lucas Radebe used to play for in South Africa.
Security staff join police in Leeds street patrols
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Since July, up to 29 street marshals, wearing high-visibility jackets, have been going on patrol at key weekends alongside police officers, community support officers and special constables. While towns across the country use street marshals or ‘angels’ to patrol on busy Friday and Saturday nights, the scheme in Leeds is the first totally funded by private businesses.
Bombers had been banned from mosques in Leeds
Three of the London bombers had been banned from mosques in the Beeston area of Leeds, where one of them lived, a Muslim academic has said.
Razaq Raj, who is a senior lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University, said he knew that Shahzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Mohammad Sidique Khan had been banned but did not know the reason why.
Leeds crime boss ordered to pay £10.6m
A former car dealer who was jailed for 25 years for a £7m heroin plot has been ordered to pay £10.6m by a judge.
Khalid Malik, 39, from Guiseley, Leeds, was jailed in 2005 for plotting to flood West Yorkshire with 130kg (286lbs) of heroin.
Judge Stephen Ashurst granted the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) a Confiscation Order at York Crown Court which ordered Malik to pay £10.6m.
The judge ruled that Malik had three months to pay the cash.
Dismantling Malik's entire criminal network was a lengthy and complex operation”
He said if Malik, who ran a used car firm in Bradford, did not pay the money within that time he faced a further 10 years in jail.
Soca said the order would ensure Malik would lose much of the wealth which once allowed him to acquire properties in the UK and abroad worth £3m and luxury cars, including a Lamborghini.
A further 26 people were jailed for various terms as part of the same investigation.
Soca deputy director Ian Cruxton said: "Dismantling Malik's entire criminal network was a lengthy and complex operation which required all the expertise and dedication of the investigation team.
"This work now means that, as well as spending decades in prison, Malik has failed in his attempt to hide his profits behind a convoluted network of friends, family and corrupt professional advisors.
"Our warning to business people in Bradford and across the UK is clear.
"If you render your services to organised crime, expect Soca to make you pay for it with your freedom and your finances."
The Leeds United Service Crew are a football hooligan firm linked to the English Football League team, Leeds United A.F.C.[1] The Service Crew were formed in 1974, and named after the ordinary public service trains that the hooligans would travel on to away matches, rather than the, heavily policed, organised football special trains. The Service Crew have a reputation for being one of the most notorious hooligan firms in English football.[2] In 1985 when football hooliganism was rife in England, the BBC Six O'Clock News had a special report in which they listed the worst football hooligan gangs creating mayhem across England and Leeds United were listed amongst the worst five clubs.[3] The club distances itself from any activities the Service Crew are involved in. During the height of the hooliganism, the Service Crew become one of the most notorious firms in European football,[2] and in doing so nearly brought the club to its knees.[4] The first high profile incident that Leeds hooligans were involved in came on 28 May 1975 at the European Cup final against Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes inParis, France. When striker Peter Lorimer had a goal disallowed in a game which ended in a 2-0 defeat to the West German side, and having already seen their team have two penalty appeals rejected by French referee Michel Kitabdjian, scores of Leeds fans ripped seats from the stands and threw them onto the pitch. Some of them clashed with the French police as they invaded the pitch. As a result of this incident, Leeds were banned from European competitions for four years - although this was later reduced to two years on appeal. Due to their on-the-field decline, however, it would be another 17 years before they tasted European action again.[5] In the 1982–83 season, in the club's first game in the Second Division after relegation, some Leeds fans went on what was described in The Sun newspaper as "an orgy of drinking, looting and fighting" in Cleethorpes, where 600 Leeds fans had stayed the night before the match. In October, two Newcastle United players were hit by missiles at Elland Road and the FA ordered another enquiry.[4] On 5 May 1990, Leeds travelled to AFC Bournemouth on the South Coast for the final game of the 1989-90 Second Division season. Victory in the game would give them the Second Division title and promotion back to the top flight after eight years away. Leeds achieved this with a 1-0 win, but the success was marred by a string of vandalism on town centre pubs and shops as well as a series of battles between hooligans and police officers. 104 people were arrested and 12 police officers were injured.[6] Modern day crackdowns on football hooliganism and the heavy use of CCTV at grounds have, as with other firms, largely curtailed the activities of the Service Crew. While hooliganism continues at Leeds United, the nature of it has changed since the 1970s and 1980s. Improvements to security in Elland Road as with all grounds in England have led to confrontations more usually taking place away from stadiums. On 28 April 2007, during the Championship game at Elland Road with Ipswich Town, about 200 home fans spilled on to the pitch and forced a 30-minute delay after a late Ipswich equaliser all but sealed Leeds' relegation to League One.[7] Around 100 of them ran toward the South East stand where the away supporters were located. Eight wheelchair-using Ipswich fans suffered injuries and were trapped pitchside by the hooligans. In January 2008 thirteen Leeds United fans were handed football banning orders totalling 45 years after they pleaded guilty to affray in connection with the pitch invasion. As with larger cities Leeds boasts a great many famous sons and daughters, some you will certainly have heard of and others who you may not as they were special in a field you may not know.
It was a chief executive's lifestyle, funded by an unrelenting but sophisticated campaign of organised crime which Slade orchestrated over many years.
Police believe he headed a tight-knit gang of men, mainly long-term friends, whom he knew well and trusted implicitly.
The organisation's inner ring involved no more than six members, and possibly as few as two, but Slade is also suspected of overseeing specific criminal divisions thought to be behind armed robberies and drugs offences.
It was a network so efficient that Slade was able to move from Leeds to Spain in the early 2000s and run it from there.
"He was domiciled there for a couple of years," a police source said, "but that didn't prevent him coming back to Britain to do what he needed to do."
Slade returned to Britain in late 2005 or early 2006 and initially lived in Harrogate, where his children were enrolled at independent schools charging fees of more than £10,000 a year.
He later moved to Leeds and bought a property in Sandmoor Drive, Alwoodley – identified as Yorkshire's most expensive street in a 2007 survey which estimated its average house price at more than £1m.
He indulged in high-performance cars and owned a Porsche Cayenne, a Bentley Arnage and a Lincoln Navigator.
Among Slade's subordinates, Michael Baxter drove a Range Rover and two Mercedes, and James Hudson owned a Volkswagen Passat and an Audi, but Richard Pearman, who lived in Swarcliffe, Leeds, did not even own a car when he was arrested.
Slade's control of the operation became so regimented that it led to discontent among lower-ranking gang members.
Unaware their conversations were being bugged by police, Pearman and Baxter once had a disgruntled discussion about how Slade was receiving a larger share of the group's ill-gotten gains than them.
Slade's extravagance drew a veil over a murky past – his conviction for grievous bodily harm as a teenager and his family connections with some of West Yorkshire's most notorious underworld figures.
He is a nephew of Frank Birley, another man known to the police who operated in Leeds, and a cousin of Frank Birley Jr, also known as Frank Gatt.
Birley Jr died in mysterious circumstances from a single bullet to the head in Meanwood, Leeds, in 2000 – six months after he was freed from prison for his part in a £147,000 shotgun raid on a jewellery shop.
A coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing after hearing that Birley Jr, 34, who was wearing a balaclava, could have been killed by a masked accomplice.
Detectives hope Slade's conviction will help unravel other unsolved cases. These include the execution-style murder of one of Birley Jr's associates, Mark McCall, in 2003 in a ginnel in Pudsey.
McCall's criminal record included convictions for GBH, wounding and making a false statement to obtain a false passport, and in 1995 he was one of four men acquitted of conspiring to murder another underworld figure, Clifton "Junior" Bryan, in Chapeltown, Leeds. The McCall murder and Birley Jr killing were two of several shootings within a short period as gang violence escalated in Leeds in the early 2000s.
After one of McCall's friends, David Clarke, died in 2005 Slade was arrested but never charged.
Clarke, a 36-year-old father-of-three known to have moved in criminal circles, was shot in the mouth at his brother-in-law's house in Moortown, Leeds.
A police inquiry concluded that the death was accidental and a coroner recorded an open verdict, but the circumstances of this and other apparently gang-related shootings remain unclear.
"There is no doubt that the criminal fraternity will have been following this case because Slade was regarded as untouchable," a police source said.
"Now that the police have successfully prosecuted this 'untouchable', they will be wondering 'Who's next?' We never close the book on undetected crimes."
Botched bid to kill criminal cost Slade his liberty
POLICE CAPTURE
POLICE finally arrested Dennis Slade after a plot to kill another criminal backfired, bringing officers to the scene.
It is now believed Slade had been planning for several days for someone to shoot his intended victim before the final incident on March 4, 2008.
But at the time the gang's sudden interest in the East End Park area of Leeds was thought to be in a security depot.
Robert Smith QC prosecuting told the jury at a trial last year at Leeds Crown Court, which could not previously be reported, that police believe his target was probably Ralph Roberts. He also had a criminal record.
The jury was not told a reason why Slade might want him dead, but after the case an officer said: "It wasn't really a personal problem, more of a financial problem."
The gang were unaware that they were already under police surveillance when they went in a couple of cars to the area of Dawlish Crescent where a car was attacked with a baseball bat.
At 7.40pm a resident was sitting in his living room when he suddenly heard noises outside.He went out to investigate and found the windscreen and some side windows of his Vauxhall Vectra had been deliberately smashed and the bodywork damaged.
Mr Smith told the jury that man was not the intended target but Mr Roberts's partner lived nearby on York Road, with the rear of the property on Dawlish Crescent. It is believed that the car was attacked in an attempt to lure him out to investigate what was happening.
However, the police hearing the sound of smashing glass thought it was gunfire and quickly moved in.
Although some of those involved escaped in one car and on a motorbike, taking away a sawn-off shotgun, another car containing Slade, Richard Pearman and Michael Baxter was found nearby.
The gang's operation was "planned with care involving the use of not only vehicles but also sophisticated technical equipment capable of tracking the movements of the intended victim," said Mr Smith.
Slade tried to dispose of a tracking device he had made himself and which he probably intended to put on the target's car if the plan did not succeed that night.
An earlier attempt had already failed when the gun jammed at the critical moment.
In the event no-one was injured. One of the cars involved was later found burnt out.
'Callous and dangerous' as teenager
SLADE'S PAST
EVEN as a teenager Dennis Patrick Slade was described by Judge Paul Hoffman as "a callous, dangerous and determined young criminal".
He was just 18 when the judge first sentenced him after hearing how Slade had left a woman seriously injured when she tried to stop him taking her family's car from outside their home in Swillington, Leeds, in 1992.
Jean Mosses suffered five separate fractures of the skull and was put on a life support machine after she and her husband Ronnie were thrown off their Nissan sports car as Slade drove away with the couple on the bonnet.
The judge condemned the law because it allowed him to pass only a 12-month sentence in a young offenders institution on Slade because he was only 17 when convicted of the offences.
He had already spent seven and a half months in custody on remand so the sentence at Leeds Crown Court in October 1993 meant his immediate release.
The judge told him then: "If I had my way, I'd be sending you away for seven or eight years because that's the sort of sentence you richly deserve."
Slade had admitted causing GBH to Mrs Mosses, three charges of taking vehicles without consent, escaping from custody, conspiracy to burgle, handling stolen goods and using a false instrument to obtain a passport.
Following an appearance at Leeds Youth Court Slade was being taken back to jail handcuffed to a policeman when two men helped him escape, cutting the cuffs with bolt cutters.
He committed further car crime and burglaries before he was re-arrested months later at Newcastle Airport with a false passport.
The judge said, having caused serious harm to Mrs Mosses by his "wicked, callous driving", while on the run he had gone on to commit serious crimes "in the big league."
Little did he know how true his words would be.
Armed police formed a ring of steel around Dennis Slade for months to prevent him from escaping in a massive security operation thought to have cost millions of pounds.
Slade travelled daily between Wakefield's maximum security prison and Leeds Crown Court in an armoured van surrounded by cars and motorcycles and surveyed from above by a police helicopter.
The cavalcade took different routes each day, and motorcycle officers held up traffic to allow it to sweep past, causing disruption and leaving passers-by wondering what was going on.
Once Slade was inside the courts complex, armed police were positioned at the doors of the trial courtroom and elsewhere in the building. Metal detectors were also erected outside the courtroom.
The tight security was ordered because Slade had escaped from custody in 1992 as a teenager.
After an appearance at Leeds Youth Court, he was being led to a police station in handcuffs when two men attacked his escorting officer and freed him with bolt-cutters.
West Yorkshire Police refused to disclose security costs, but Northumbria Police revealed in 2002 a 12-week trial heard at Leeds under similar conditions had cost taxpayers "millions".
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed that the Slade investigation was "right up there" alongside the force's largest cases of the last 20 years.
Gang fled with £1m after ramming cash van with tractor
SECURITAS ROBBERY
THE Slade gang got away with more than a million pounds in a successful and dramatic raid on a security van after it was rammed at the rear with a tractor.
The crew of the Securitas van were travelling from Merseyside to their depot near Warrington on March 8, 2006 when the robbers struck.
After leaving the M6 the two crew on board, Noel Newby and Charles Smithurst, pulled up at a give way junction behind a Volvo flatback low-loader lorry unaware that they had driven into a trap.
With the loader preventing them moving forward, the van was suddenly rammed from behind, the loader arms attached to a tractor slamming into the rear door and allowed partial access.
The van was carrying £1.4m and the robbers managed to get just over £1m out before fleeing in a stolen car.
About a mile away a witness saw men moving bags from a Volvo car into an Audi estate.
Attempts were made to burn out the Volvo but they were only partially successful. It had been stolen 10 months earlier in Leeds and in the period in between had done only 300 miles.
The gang often stole high-powered vehicles which they kept in convenient premises for use in raids when needed.
The loader and the tractor, which were abandoned at the scene, had both been stolen to order from Wilberfoss, near York, especially for the robbery.
The tractor had only been delivered at 4.30pm the day before the Securitas robbery, but within five hours of its arrival it and the loader had both been stolen. They were not spotted again until they appeared during the robbery.
The raid demonstrated the kind of detailed planning undertaken by the gang because the width of the arms on the tractor taken, which usually had a bucket or some other attachment, corresponded exactly with the width of the door which was repeatedly rammed on the security van.
£500,000 store raid was foiled when manager heard drilling
SAINSBURY'S PLOT
AN audacious plan to carry out a half-million-pound robbery at a West Yorkshire supermarket was foiled when a member of staff heard drilling.
It was about 9pm on January 29, 2008, that administrative manager Suzanne Pease went to clear some paperwork in the security area at Sainsbury's at the Colton Retail Park in Leeds near junction 46 of the M1.
In that area, in addition to the supermarket safes, was a purpose-built room behind the cash machines where money would be delivered for staff to refill them.
While there she suddenly heard drilling and then, as she went to check, the sound of footsteps in the roof space above her head.
Fearing for her safety, she immediately contacted the police. When officers arrived those responsible had fled but the police found damage to the roof and abandoned equipment including a set of ladders.
The damage allowed access through the roof to an electrical room, below which work had begun to weaken the wall into the secure cashroom. It was clear the raiders intended to force entry when staff received cash to reload the ATMs.
Unknown to those officers who first arrived at the scene, those behind the plot were already the subject of an extensive and long- standing police investigation.
Dennis Slade and some of his closest associates had been under surveillance by a team of undercover officers for months and a white Toyota van regularly used by the gang was often seen near the store in previous weeks.
The undercover operation showed how the gang frequently scouted out other targets across West and North Yorkshire in the months before they were arrested.
On one day alone, January 10, 2008, a covert tracking device in the Toyota van showed it visited Brighouse, Huddersfield, Elland, Halifax and a number of roads with Post Offices in Bradford.
That afternoon the van continued to Bingley, Keighley, Ilkley, Otley, Wetherby, Boston Spa, back to Wetherby and on to Thirsk and Boroughbridge before returning to Boston Spa, parking up near the Post Office.
The van then went back to Sainsbury's in Moortown, Leeds, before going near an industrial estate where a depot was sited with a cash-handling operation for two high street banks.
The final destination before the vehicle was parked up was the Loomis, formerly Securitas, cash-handling centre off St Hilda's Road, Leeds.
Terror for Post Office staff as gang used digger to crash through wall
SMASH AND GRAB
ONE minute staff at a Post Office in Leeds were working normally, the next they were facing a pile of rubble as robbers ram-raided a hole through the wall from the street using a heavy digger.
Seconds earlier Beverley Robinson, the assistant branch manager at Crossgates Post Office, had been using a computer inches away from where the robbers crashed in. If she had not moved she might not have lived to tell the tale, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Eight members of staff were doing a stock take after the doors were locked when the ruthless robbers struck on December 12, 2007.
A witness watched in amazement as the driver of a red digger accelerated from the opposite side of the road, its telescopic arm hitting the wall and breaching it. He then saw the driver jump out and scramble over the rubble shouting "Give us the money" and a second man follow.
Mrs Robinson heard what she thought was an explosion and hurried back into the main Post Office. As she did a man all in black with a scarf around his face was standing on her desk.
He shouted to her to get on the floor, threatening to kill her.
The raiders took two security boxes containing only stamps and missed £50,000 in the main safe.
The pair fled in a stolen Ford Focus which was later hidden in a garage in Moortown, Leeds, rented by an associate of Dennis Slade. It had been stolen from the owner's drive in Cottingley, Leeds, only five days earlier.
As in a raid on a security van near Warrington the previous year, the heavy equipment used was stolen to order. The telescopic loader was taken earlier that day from a building site at Sandmoor Drive, round the corner from Slade's home.
Fury erupted when the YEP revealed earlier this month that 39-year-old Ralph Steele was being allowed weekly home leave –
Now, the YEP has learned that senior officials from the city’s criminal justice group – which includes police, probation, prison and courts representatives, and victims – are to discuss the case at their next meeting.
And, it could result in them making representation over Steele’s early release to the county criminal justice group – and ultimately the Government.
Today, Chief Supt Howard Crowther, chairman of Leeds Criminal Justice Group, said the case had been brought to his attention and it would be raised at the panel’s meeting next month.
Chief Supt Crowther told the YEP: “I certainly believe this is a case that needs to be discussed to see what the views are of all the people on the panel. The panel is an excellent forum to discuss such cases, because it involves key players from all the criminal justice agencies.
“I could not pre-empt the feeling within the group. However, if it was felt that representation should be made over this case, it would first be referred to the West Yorkshire Criminal Justice group.”
Ralph Steele was the head of a family gang which became known as “the Untouchables” because they appeared to be out of reach of the law until they were snared in a major police operation.
Last November, Steele, of Parkland Crescent, Meanwood, Leeds, was jailed for six and a half years after admitting conspiracy to burgle and nine offences of money laundering.
Steele, who had been held in custody on remand for almost a year prior to his court appearance, had previously been jailed for six years, for burglary, in 1999.
He was allowed out on weekly day release after being moved to Moorland open prison in South Yorkshire earlier this year. He has also been given a prison “job”, working as a driver – bussing other prisoners around.
Steele’s gang carried out dozens of burglaries which netted them more than £1m. The gang was caught after police set up an operation to investigate raids on the homes of mainly Asian families in north Leeds and the outskirts of Bradford.
It ended with the family gang facing charges relating to 72 burglaries between October 2003 and September 2005, and involving a haul of £1.1m.
In October, 2005, police raided Ralph Steele’s home in Parkland Crescent, where he lived with his wife and young daughter. Detectives who raided the home described it as the most heavily-fortified semi they had ever seen.
Inside, they found £78,000 in cash hidden under the floorboards and jewellery worth about £20,000 hidden around the rest of the house.
Confiscation hearings are still to be held to decide how much members of the gang gained from their life of crime – and how much they will be ordered to pay up.
So who are the ten most famous people from Leeds?
Well the list may bring a few surprises and there may be some debate but common polls show that the below are the ten most famous people from Leeds (in no particular order).Peter O’Toole
The famous actor most notable for his role in Lawrence of Arabia and who has a film and acting career spanning over fifty years. For those of the younger generation you may remember him as King Priam in the film Troy with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.Jeremy Paxman
Journalist, Author and television presenter Jeremy Paxman has done it all. Jeremy has worked for the BBC since 1977 and has fronted many famous BBC shows such as Newsnight and University Challenge.Chris Moyles
You either love him or hate him but Chris Moyles is famous for “Saving” Radio One as he likes to say. Chris Moyles is a cheeky chappy who keeps the country moving with his wit and wry sense of humour. Chris Moyles has also branched out in recent years into the world of television.Ernie Wise
None other than one half of the most famous comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, Ernest Wise OBE and his partner Morecambe are well known for having made the people of the UK laugh for many decades.
Having started in radio Wise with his partner soon found fame after moving to television.Micah Richards
Micah Richards may play for Manchester city in the heart of their defense but he is a real Leeds lad having been born and bought up in Leeds. Today Micah Richards is a famous footballer who plays for England having been the youngest defender ever to be called up to the England squad and is still only twenty one years of age.Mike Tindall
Mike Tindall MBE is a rugby union player who currently plays for Gloucester and England. Tindall is seen as one of the finest centres in rugby union and has won 58 caps for England.
Mike Tindall is also the boyfriend of Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of HM Queen Elizabeth II.John Craven
John Craven OBE is a much loved television presenter who is retired now but was a driving force on children’s television in the 1980’s. Johns most notable television presenting includes children’s Newsround as a news presenter. Melanie Brown
Better known as Mel B, Melanie Brown made up part of the most famous girl band of all time Mel B. During her time with the Spice Girls Mel B was given the nickname “Scary Spice”.
After the Spice Girls split up Mel B tried a solo career that never really took off and has since had a relationship with comedy actor Eddie Murphy bearing his child.John Smeaton
John Smeaton is a famous engineer who designed many famous bridges, canals, lighthouses and other waterways engineering feats. For his work in advancing civil engineering John Smeaton has been given the title of “Father of civil engineering”.Alfred Austin
Alfred Austin is a famous poet from the humble beginnings of the nineteenth century streets of Leeds. After huge success Alfred Austin was appointed the most prestigious award for a poet, the Poet Laureate.
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