he said the uk had signed up to a treaty opposing their use, but would continue to offer support. the sun newspaper says a bbc presenter has been accused of paying a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photographs, beginning when they were 17. it is understood that the bbc is looking into the allegations. the dutch prime minister meets the country's king to discuss the formation of a caretaker administration after the collapse of his coalition government. he will lead a caretaker administration until elections in november. could pasta made from ground crickets be coming to a menu near you? following eu approval of the sale of insects for human consumption, a farm in northern italy hopes the superfood will prove popular. now on bbc news, the sunshine scammer.

the moment lyne barlow�*s world fell apart. she wrecked the lives of family and friends. oh, my god, someone that you knew could deceive people that way. i was really shocked. it was the talk of the town. she broke the dreams of hundreds of customers in her too good to be true travel scam. so many people out there that we have spoke to that have been ripped off by this woman. hello, durham police. i want to speak to somebody about this lyne barlow. - it was durham's biggest everfraud inquiry. what she was doing was ingratiating herself with people, having lavish parties. she was popular. and we hearfrom lyne barlow in her own words. the person that could do this to people. i need to be punished

for what i have done. have you got anything to say to the victims? i have never met anybody like lyne barlow. - this was a once—in—a—lifetime job. this interview is being recorded and it may be given in evidence if your case is brought to trial. i am dc 2441. you know i am from durham police. you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. anything you do say may be given in evidence. a fraudster lies, that is what they do. so you almost have to have that cynicism of anything they say. is it the truth? or is it lies?

ali blackett, the detective who spent years bringing lyne barlow to justice. it was her lastjob before retirement. the main motive to me has got to be greed. it has got to be. she liked that lifestyle. she liked spending money. there was a snow machine, there was the red carpet, there was the vip strings. it was very posh. i met lyne barlow- through a friend of mine. we would have drinks together - and then she would join on different other occasions and we would do thirsty thursday at her house, i we would all be invited to hers. you didn't have to take your own

drink like you normally would amongst the girls. we had like charity events. she would rock up with the most amazing expensive prize. they were always on holiday. it wasn't just like a cheap holiday to spain. it was always mexico or dubai or somewhere like a little bit more extravagant. clothes—wise, it was always designer. like her handbags were always named, as were her shoes and designer dresses and things. i think she wanted to be a millionaire and she wanted to show off and show people what she could do and what she could organise and what she could give and for people to like her and talk about her, like, oh, my god, have you ever been to one of lyne barlow�*s parties? they are amazing. there was this they that there, which is really kind that

when you look back on it now it wasn't even her money. but behind lyne�*s public face, her world of deceit, her wealth was ripped off from others, and it all began with their own mother. it started when her mum received some money from when her husband passed away, which is lyne�*s father. lyne took control of a man's bank account. she did that on the pretext that her mum was suffering so much with grief that she was not able to do day—to—day management of the finances. lyne�*s number got put onto her account, from there she emptied her mother's bank account. she did give me access to accounts. she was aware that i access them. she trusted us. then i used to say, when she was expecting bank statements, problems, they are not coming, things like that.

to conceal the truth, lyne hid her mum's mail, police found five beanbags of her post in the attic. lyne told her mum that she could invest money. her mum thought she was well off. she thought she was well off from the pension payout. what the explanation was is that that money could be doubled, quadrupled, through an investment. the investment was supposed to be through lyne�*s husband and her husband �*s company. i said people could invest, they could get a massive return on it. she went to the extent of actually creating bank statements. she created a bank statement on her own computer showing that she had large credits coming in from these investments, showing that the balance was over £1 million, and her mum had sight

of those and truly believed that she was a millionaire. i feel like i'm sitting here making an excuse, there is no excuse for what i have done to my mam. she had bailiffs on her back because of unpaid utility bills that she was obviously aware of. she even struggled to find herself a basic bank account because all other markers were against her, not against lyne, against her mother. in all, lyne conned her mother out of more than £500,000. when that money ran out, she moved onto herfriends. she was totally normal.

lived in a normal estate in stanley. this woman, who we are calling sera, knew lyne from when she was a child. she did not want to go on camera, an actor is speaking her words. she was always generous with me. she was, when i used to babysit for her. she would always pay, like, a stupid amount for baby—sitting. a friend, there we did the cambridge diet, we became good friends, lovely lady. she out of the blue approach might motherand said, my mother has invested a lot of money into paul's company, it will change your life, do you want to do the same? because they had been living quite a nice life for the last five or so years before that, and we had been wondering where does lyne get her money to have these

parties and go on these holidays, and now we know it was form her mum, but at the time we thought, this explains it. they are clearly getting a lot of profit from the investment into paul's company. my mum did it, i asked at the time, are you sure this is right? she said, it isjust lyne, like, lyne would not do that to us. i wanted to be needed and liked. i was struggling with that feeling from anybody else, ijust thought she is going to have to be my friend for at least one year. it is quite unbelievable claim to come outwith. if you want a friend you do not suggest that you are going to buy their friendship for one year, but you are not even buying the friendship, she was ripping her off, she would have known she was ripping off from the start. with her mother's money running out sarah became worried.

i thought, i will message her. i am really worried about mum. i would be the same with my mum. i know it is difficult to understand. it will change your mother's life. in all, lyne conned sarah's mother out of £100,000. my mum is diligent, she has never been in debt, never overdrawn. when stuff was not getting fixed, when things were not getting fixed, my mum had to pick up the pieces, having lived a normal life, working towards retirement, she suddenly finds herself in a position where she had to start all over. she had nothing.

they were left penniless at points. other people had used inheritance to supply the money for the investment. what i cannot get over is how she looked as dead in the eyes and told barefaced lies. and trying to trust anyone after that is difficult. while she was ripping off family and friends, lyne�*s crime stayed under the radar, but now she tried her hand as a travel agent. that was to be the start of her downfall. we contacted lyne, she gave us a price for a golf holiday, six of us, a good price. we said, we will go ahead with that.

paul had heard about lyne from friends who had booked a cheap holiday through facebook. there was a private minibus with a bar inside. the room in the hotel was fantastic. could not complain. after three days we got a phone call from reception saying, come down and see the manager. we went round reception to the manager's office, he said, even though you have got documentation for 14 days all inclusive, lyne barlow�*s travel has only paid for three days. we could not believe it. where the holiday is booked, or were you just saying there were booked? last—minute...

someone had paid for your holiday, you did not buy them the holiday, you used that money to pay for another holiday. you then spent it on that. a never ending circle. even the manager was ringing lyne. as soon as we would start ringing the number was blanked. the text messages were not going through from our phone, we knew we were in big trouble here. complaints about lyne were now being made to the police and ali blackett decided to pay her a visit. hello, i am dc ali blackett, durham police. she disclosed straightaway she was suffering from cancer. she came across as very frail.

she had a head covering on to cover the fact that she had hair loss from the cancer treatment she had been going through. she had walking stick, as well. she was very unsteady on her feet. she said she had to sit down because she was so frail. it was the beginning of the covid pandemic, lyne was assessed as high risk. how would taking her into a custody of the area that we could potentially expose her to covid, nobody knew what that would do, we had to weigh up that first before making the final decision as to how we deal with her. she was never going to get the hook. the decision not to arrest lyne meant she was free to continue running her dodgy travel business, and the customers kept flooding in. we book our family holiday with our friends to the norfolk broads on a barge.

claire from newcastle spent £1,000 for her family holiday, and they drove almost 300 miles with their children to get there. it must have been 11 o'clock when we arrived there. could not book on till 12. we took a look around at the nice boats, thinking, there is our boat. we have the name of the boats we were going on. went to reception, no booking. after a 600 mile round trip, clear decided to go to lyne�*s house to get her money back. ijust wondered if we can come in and chat about the holiday. she had a bandanna around her head, i thought, have you really lost all of you hair? she invited us in. sat in the kitchen. she offered as a glass of water. i was asking her questions. within minutes she accidentally

knocked a glass of water over. i said, something is not right here. i think she knew, she was panicking, she knew that she had not booked our holiday, the guilt was chipping in. it certainly was. more angry customers were coming to her house. lyne! i can see you. i will be back. i want my money. lyne was getting desperate. reaching out to neighbours, friends, family, to lend her money. this is when i was getting all the threats and things. i asked anyone i possibly could to help. i thought, that is not the person i was getting to know after all these years.

this woman, we are calling her anna, she was close to lyne, she did not want to go on camera, her words are spoken by an actor. i got a text through in the afternoon. this is the most embarrassing thing i have ever done. - please don't let - this go any further. this means you shake when you read it. there are some very- unhappy people and mad. as a mam it pulls on your heartstrings. is there anything you can i lend me in the meantime? oh, my god. it is horrific.

i coukld send three, that is all i have in the account. i transferred the £3,000. hello, durham police. i want to speak to somebody regarding fraud. i want to speak to somebody about lyne barlow. they said they had not received anything. we were driving to center parcs, we got told to pull over, it is not booked. we were inundated with calls, 165 incidents logged _ in a two to three—day period. how much have you paid? £4,000. £6,000. paid her £5,520. i have worked in the control room for 19 years, i have never seen

the volume of calls and incidents reported for one particular suspect regarding fraud. it was to become durham's biggest ever fraud inquiry. detectives were drafted in the investigation. we decided we would arrest lyne barlow regardless of health conditions. lyne answered the door, she was presenting wearing a headscarf, she invited us in. we informed her of the allegation, that she would be arrested, we intended to search the premises. while we were conducting the search there was a number of calls at the door by people who had taken holiday deals and were essentially trying to get their money back.

there was some lack of understanding from her husband as to why we were there. you cannot take it to the station, she has got cancer. we informed him of the previous allegations. lyne was taken into custody, it was here that i biggest it was here that here that her biggest deceit was exposed. beneath the headscarf, she still had a full head of hair her cancer and chemotherapy were just more of lyne�*s lies. within our custody sites we can access medical records. she had divulged that she had not had cancer, she had never been diagnosed with cancer.

have you ever had cancer? no. who have you told that you did have cancer? . everybody. had you to people you had had cancer more than once? - yes. twice. everybody thought you had had cancer twice and that was not true? - no. it was a revelation in the investigation, one of the decisions made was to inform the family because she was going to be released from custody and it was clear that the family did not seem to know that she did not have cancer. would you ever use that as an excuse for things to do with money and paying things back? i used it for the business, - when people were threatening us, i used it for, please do not hurt us. - it's confirmed that she was capable of lying, and certainly lying

to individuals close to her. one thing is ripping people off, that is horrendous, the other thing is actually saying you have got cancer, for me that is the lowest of the low. why did you do it? why did you lie? cancer is not a jokeable illness, you are a disgrace of a human being. lyne�*s finances were so complex that police had to bring in a specialist accountant. there were 450 separate frauds and 1,400 victims. i received 16 bank accounts, within that there was over 21,500 transactions to analyse. it was in excess of 1.2 million that has been identified as lyne barlow�*s benefit from the holiday

frauds and theft. with regards to how that was spent, it is difficult to identify what was personal and what was for payments for other holidays, but it has all been spent. there is no pot of gold anywhere that i have found. lyne�*s home was attacked by arsonists, she left the area. police would later find out she was trying to leave the country. we received some information that she was potentially going to move away from the address that we believed she was at. we deemed her to be an increased flight risk, because of that we wanted to be able to put her onto bail conditions so that we controlled her movements and she would not abscond.

do you wish to speak to a legal adviser now have one present? no. any reason why you don't want them present? i am just going to answer the questions honestly that you are going to ask. it was unusual not to have a solicitor, that was her choice, her phrase was she does not need a solicitor to tell us the truth. i did not set out to hurt anybody, and i have done it. _ there was always this element of, yes, but i did it because. there was always that excuse on the sidelines as to why she had done what she done. she did not provide an account as to why she did it. _ she obviously wanted - a lifestyle and she continued to do what she did. at durham crown court, lyne admitted all ten charges against her, thejudge said she had an extraordinary talent for deceit. he described the betrayal of her mother as breathtaking. she was jailed for nine years. have you got anything

to say to the victims? will you apologise for what happened ? i don't think it is long enough for what she has put people through, the heartache. i am not the judge, but there are people out there with real issues of cancer, otherfamily members, i have a family member that is poorly, that is real life stuff, she hasjust lied and caused heartbreak for so many people. we initially thought it was just the holiday frauds, i think the biggest surprises when we realise what happened to her mum. unbelievable that her daughter could do that to her. the financial loss, although significant, is nothing in comparison to losing my family. i hope in future there will be some reconciliation as life is so precious. i will love her

until my last breath. now, looking back, lam pleased that it fell down when it did, - because i have been able to tell you what happened. _ also my family can get by with me being _ also my family can get by with me being here — also my family can get by with me being here in_ also my family can get by with me being here in prison. _

hello. we've had some intense and impactful storms across parts of the uk today, all tapping in to that humidity all tapping in to that humidity that was in the air earlier on, that was in the air earlier on, where we saw temperatures peak where we saw temperatures peak in the high 20s in parts of northern in the high 20s in parts of northern scotland and eastern england. these same spots where some of the warmest conditions were today. well, over the coming week, much, much cooler. that begins through the rest of this weekend, a step to something fresher, but still some further showers around, even if they're not as intense as some have seen today. the slightly fresher air is behind this area of cloud here. it's been working its way in from the south—west slowly. under this cloud is where we saw some of the worst of the storms through the day. drifting its way northwards into the night. still some heavy showers, thunderstorms in northern england and pushing across scotland. things turn drier, but later on, the channel islands, maybe the far south—east of england, could see some push back in from northern france. now, as i said, it won't be quite as humid and muggy tonight, but still a warm night. temperatures around 11 to 15 degrees to start your sunday morning.

outbreaks of rain in northern scotland drifting towards 0rkney and shetland. the potential for some heavy and thundery rain working across the south—east and east anglia for a time, before easing away late in the morning. elsewhere, a sunny start, but showers get going in northern ireland, then develop elsewhere, particularly wales, north midlands and into parts of northern england. as i said, not as bad as those we've seen through saturday. quite a few of you will get through sunday actually dry and with winds lighter. it should actually feel quite pleasant out there in the sunshine, even if we've lost all that heat and humidity of recent days. temperatures widely low to mid—20s. now, as we go into sunday night, clearer this hour. though, an area of low pressure is out towards the south—west of us, creeping in, throwing these weather fronts our way to bring a different day again on monday. longer spells of rain pushing through ireland in towards wales, midlands, northern england, southern scotland later on. parts of north—east scotland may stay dry through the day. east anglia, the south—east at the moment look to be favoured for staying amongst the drier conditions and warmer weather. temperatures dropping elsewhere.

but through monday night, some very heavy rain expected across some southern parts of england from these weather fronts. 0ur area of low pressure then transfers its way off to scandinavia and, in doing so, with the winds coming anti—clockwise around that, go to a west if not north—westerly direction. so through next week, be prepared, it's not going to feel as warm as it has done this weekend with temperatures at, if not below, the seasonal average. there will be spells of rain at times and also some strong winds. hello, you're watching bbc news. i'm rich preston. the divisons in nato over whether to supply cluster weapons to ukraine are becoming