In one of the most important gang related court cases in the last decade, the notorious 'Gooch Gang' finally faced sentencing after being found guilty on Wednesday 1st April 2009 and Monday 6th April 2009 and sentenced to a minimum total of 220 yrs, which could rise to a maximum of 415 years following many years of drugs, intimidation, murder and gun crime across the streets of Manchester. Focus were instructed by Greater Manchester Police to look at the cell site evidence on the case.

Below, I have listed the sentences received by the gang members, along with a link to the article written in the Manchester Evening News. I hope you will all be as excited by what was a great result for GMP, and see the benefits of cell site experts in investigations and the court room….

Colin JOYCE b.19.07.79, - found guilty of the murders of Ucal Chin and Tyrone Gilbert, Attempt Murder of Michael Gordon and Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to Endanger Life between 2004 - 2008.

Joyce was sentenced to Life  - minimum term 39yrs.

Lee AMOS b.21.02.76, - found guilty of the murder Tyrone Gilbert and Attempt Murder of Michael Gordon.

AMOS was sentenced to Life  - minimum term 35yrs.

Aerron CAMPBELL b.09.04.83, - found guilty of the murder of Tyrone Gilbert, Attempt Murder of Michael Gordon, FI and Drugs Conspiracy between 2004 – 2008 and Possession of a  Class A Drug with Intent to Supply.

CAMPBELL was sentenced to Life  - minimum term 32yrs.

Narada WILLIAMS b.08.11.80, - found guilty of the murder of Tyrone Gilbert, Attempt Murder of Michael Gordon, Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to Endanger Life between 2004 - 2008 and Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.  He was also convicted of Possession FI on 2/02/07 with intent to Endanger Life.

Narada WILLIAMS was sentenced to Life  - minimum 35yrs.

Ricardo WILLIAMS b.04.10.82, - found guilty of the murder of Tyrone Gilbert, Attempt Murder of Michael Gordon, Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to Endanger Life between 2004 - 2008 and Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.

Ricardo WILLIAMS was sentenced to Life  - minimum 34yrs.

Hassan SHAH b.05.08.83, - found guilty of Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to endanger life and Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.

SHAH was sentenced to min term 9 yrs (Indeterminate Public Protection Order)

Aaron ALEXANDER b.10.03.86, - found guilty of Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to endanger life and Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.

ALEXANDER was sentenced to 13 yrs.

Ricci MOSS B.14.07.87, - found guilty of Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.

Moss was sentenced to 6 yrs - commencing on 08/09/11.

Kayael WINT b.28.12.88, - found guilty of Possessing FI with intent to Endanger Life on 02/02/07.

WINT was sentenced to min term 5.5 yrs (Indeterminate Public Protection Order)

Tyler MULLINGS b.08.05.90, - found guilty of Possessing FI with intent to Endanger Life on 02/02/07.

Mullings was sentenced to 6yrs.

Gonoo HUSSAIN b.31.03.83, pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess FI with intent to Endanger Life and conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs between 2004 - 2008.

HUSSAIN was sentenced to min term 5.5 yrs (Indeterminate Public Protection Order)

To see more, please follow the link below:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1107017_gooch_gang_smashed

FFT have recently been aquired by LGC, the largest privately owned forensic science service provider in the UK. Through LGC Forensics, a major division of LGC, they serve the police and crime enforcement agencies and also have an increasing number of private sector clients. 

Offering a comprehensive range of forensic science services, based on an extensive range of techniques.

With a team of over 550 staff in the UK, LGC Forensics delivers established and meticulously executed forensic science either at the crime scene or in one of their eight UK laboratories at: Culham (Oxfordshire): Teddington, (Middlesex); Tamworth, (Staffordshire); Leeds, (West Yorkshire); Risley, St. Neots, Bromsgrove and Runcorn (Cheshire).

This is a very exciting time for all at Focus, and we look forward to being able to offer a one stop shop of forensic capabilities to our clients.

As from the 1st February 2009, the cost of training being provided by Focus went up. It has been many years since we had to increase the cost of this service, as we kept the prices as low as possible as it had become an important part of many forces budget spend.

Not being the type of company that hide costs, below is a breakdown of the old and new pricing:

2G Cell Site Analysis 'Life at Risk' Course

Old Price: £249.00 per head plus VAT                        New Price: £273.90 per head plus VAT

3G Data for Investigations Course

Old Price: £275.00 per head plus VAT                        New Price: £302.50 per head plus VAT

To find out more, please contact Jez Nelson by either calling 01527 573 843, or via email at jez.nelson@fft.uk.com

The first of the new 3G courses that Focus offer, was delivered a couple of months ago. Following great feedback, we delivered another this month. Again the feedback received was second to none.

The next courses are already being booked up too! Already in the New Year, we have had requests from many forces regarding the course, many of which have previously attended our Cell Site 'Life at Risk' course. Although training is not the core of our business, we believe in arming officer with as much knowledge as possible to assist them in their day to day duties, and the 3G course was a welcome addition to the courses we run. We ask forces what they want, they tell us, and we do our best to put it into place. Flexibility plays a big part of what we do, and we believe that this shows by the way we conduct our business.

Should you wish to find out more about the 3G 'Data for Investigations' course or any of the courses we provide; please feel free to email: jez.nelson@fft.uk.com for further information.

Some of the feedback so far……

"Thoroughly recommended!"- A. Cantwell - Metropolitan Police Service

"… definitely recommend Martin and the course…."A. Wagstaff - West Midlands Police

"An entertaining and useful days input - well put across…"- M.Pylyp - West Midlands Police

"Excellent Course!" - M. Stuart - Metropolitan Police Service

For many years Focus have offered Police forces up and down the country, services that assist investigations. We are now proud to offer the latest addition to these services 'CDR Cleansing'.

At the early stages of investigation, when call detail records from the networks can be page after page after page, we are now able to save you time and money by taking this data, and running it through our Data Cleansing Suite. This in turn will put the data that can take days to sift through, into an easily ledgible and workable format.

Most of the time, we can have the data back to you the next day, cutting investigation time down significantly. It is already proving to be popular, as we are already having requests from forces.

There is a cost involved, but at a mere £29.75 + VAT per file (up to 6 mb), we beleive easily outways the cost of an analyst doing the same job manually.

For more information on this or more of Focus' services, please feel free to contact us, where we will be more than happy to go through any questions you may have.

Computer evidence and Forensic Computing can be important in proving criminal cases, civil disputes, and in employment proceedings. More information is retained on a computer than most people realise and it is more difficult to completely remove than is generally thought. Computer Forensics can often find evidence of lost or deleted information. Contrary to what is often thought, in many cases it is possible to produce reliable computer-derived evidence without recourse to specialist tools.

Computer forensics and electronic evidence is often the deciding factor in a criminal or civil action. Cases involving trade secrets, commercial disputes, employment discrimination, crimes, and personal injury can be won or lost solely with the introduction of recovered e-mail messages and other electronic files and records. If an attempt has been made to delete, erase, or otherwise hide critical evidence, you need an experienced, competent data recovery professional from FFT to lead the search and retrieval of the missing information!

Electronic evidence gathering can be critical to both the prosecution and defence of virtually any civil or criminal case. Outside of the courtroom, it can also be of great assistance to corporations and insurance companies in investigating fraud, harassment and discrimination, misappropriation of proprietary information, and workers compensation issues before the claim or complaint is filed.

Computers and Mobile phones are becoming more and more integrated with technical advancements towards the convergence of communications and data processing equipment,FFT can provide Mobile Phone Forensics as well as PDA Forensics as separate services to Computer forensics or as a combined solution for our clients.

Focus provide computer forensic imaging, examination and analysis services for prosecution, defence and civil actions, click the Contact FFT link to request more information, if you require immediate assistance call a computer forensics investigator at Focus now on +44 (0)1527 578778.

Click on the link for advice on Computer Forensics evidence exhibit handling, for more in-depth advice on our Mobile Phone Forensics / Handset Forensics please click here