Good evening, these are the latest ECHO headlines on Monday, October 4 to keep you up to date.
Crime boss of car theft gang brought down after 162 burglaries
An organised crime group responsible for a total of 162 burglaries, attempted burglaries and thefts caused "misery wherever they went".
READ MORE: Nurse Lucy Letby pleads not guilty to murder of eight babies
Kashif Rafiq (also known as Anjum Nawaz), 38, of Oozehead Lane, Blackburn was the head of the OCG and was responsible for coordinating their activities in sourcing and stealing multiple vehicles across Merseyside, Lancashire and Cheshire.
An investigation began in January 2020 after an increase in residential burglaries across Merseyside, Lancashire and Cheshire, in which high performance vehicles with an estimated value of £2.6 million were stolen, and often recovered in the Blackburn area of Lancashire.
The theft offences investigated were keyless entries, in which wireless key signals were cloned, enabling the offenders to open the vehicle on the driveway, start the engine and drive the vehicle away. This means the criminal is able to avoid having to break into homes to steal key fobs.
But the spate of burglaries has now come to an end with Rafiq, along with five other members of the gang being put behind bars.
Rafiq was today (Monday, October 4) sentenced to eight years, nine months for conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.
This brings the total sentences for the operation, carried out by Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire Constabularies, to 32 years in prison.
To read the full story click HERE.
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram down for social media users as sites crash
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all appear to be down with thousands of users reporting a major outage.
The three social media giants are all experiencing problems in a global outage, according to DownDetector.
Social media users who tried to access Facebook received a message which read: "Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on it and will fix it as soon as we can."
WhatsApp and Instagram users also reported problems with the messaging and photo sharing apps.
More than 20,000 WhatsApp users reported issues using the global instant messaging service from about 4pm UK time.
To read the full story click HERE.
Contractor carrying out Lime Street redevelopment collapses into administration
Another of Liverpool's major roadworks schemes has been plunged into chaos after the contractor carrying it out collapsed into administration.
It has been confirmed that NMCN plc has entered administration after failing to sign off its 2020 accounts and secure a re-financing of the business.
NMCN is the principal contractor behind the multi-million pound, controversial redevelopment of the Lime Street and St George's area - perhaps the most iconic gateway into the city of Liverpool.
The scheme is part of the wider - and often contentious - City Centre Connectivity Scheme, which is already running significantly over budget and has led to a number of political rows.
Today's news will be a huge blow to the city council and the ECHO understands it could add months on to the Lime Street work programme.
The council tweeted last week to say that the work, which involves reducing Lime Street to a single lane of traffic in each direction and creating more public space - had entered in its final phase.
The hope was that the long-running scheme, which has caused plenty of disruption in the city centre, would be completed by mid December.
To read the full story click HERE.
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