Window Cleaning News

Tony Evans (above) gives us more fun & frolics in the snow from the deepest parts of coldest Iowa.

Thief: 'Let me go, you've got the stuff back': A window cleaner who a court was told has nearly 100 previous convictions, was tackled by staff as he tried to make off with goods from a Docklands store. As he ran from Homebase on Riversway, Preston, John Hendry threw stolen items from a bin bag. Preston Crown Court Prosecutor Kirsten McAteer said security staff had seen the defendant steal lights with a value of about £280. When caught he said: "Why don't you let me go? You have got your stuff back." "I'm going out tonight and needed some money. "Hendry, 46, of Castleton Road, Deepdale, pleaded guilty to theft. The court was told he had 95 previous offences and, at the time of his arrest in May, was serving a community order for a similar matter. Defending, Roger Baldwin said in mitigation Hendry had a long-standing alcohol problem. He had started a window cleaning round and in recent years his offending had been drastically reduced. Judge Christina Lyon said Hendry's record suggested his rate of offending was slowing down. She said she would give him a chance to continue with supervision provided by the probation service. The 16 week jail sentence she passed would be suspended for a year with 12 months supervision. "If you breach these terms you will go to prison", she warned him.

Safety Media release DVD's for managers & employees. Safety Media have developed interactive content as part of this DVD. Questions are posed throughout 5 Steps - Risk Assessment in your Workplace, ensuring that the viewer fully understands the subject matter. This also gives the trainer an opportunity to discuss the content. This DVD will raise awareness within your organisation that everyone is responsible for their own risk assessment. Ideal for every member of the workforce from managers to employees. During 2004/05, 220 people were killed and over 150,000 were injured at work because of a failure to manage risk. Source: HSEIn view of these worrying statistics, Safety Media have developed a NEW Interactive DVD. 5 Steps - Risk Assessment in your Workplace is an innovative solution to risk assessment training. This DVD will show the viewer how risk assessments don't need be daunting and time-consuming tasks. An emphasis is placed on how they can easily become second nature during a working day.

Conman burglar jailed for six years: A conman who posed as a window cleaner so he could steal from people has been jailed for six years. Paul O’Hare of Meadow Bank Road, Chatham, was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court for four distraction burglaries. He sometimes posed as a window cleaner in order to gain access to people’s properties. Police reminded people to be cautious when allowing visitors entry into their home. Their advice is stop, chain, check. Use the door bar or chain before you open the door. Always ask to see identification and if you have any doubts about a caller or are not expecting anyone do not let them in, even if they say they know you. Ask the caller to show you proof of their identify, then check the caller is genuine by ringing the company using the telephone number in the phone book, not on the card. If a caller is genuine they will understand the need to check and will not mind waiting. If you are worried call the police. For more information visit the Kent police website or contact your neighbourhood officer by using the postcode search facility at http://www.kent.police.uk/.

Crazy Joe's pipe dream comes true: As everyone on both sides of the debate knows full well, it's no longer legal to smoke in restaurants and coffee shops in London. There is, however, one exception to the rule, a place where people smoke every day with their coffee and tea -- legally sanctioned. At Crazy Joe's Shisha Cafe, customers are invited to smoke from a shisha pipe, puffing herbal smoke in a dozen flavours, all free of tobacco, tar and nicotine. Historically, the shisha pipe, also known as a hookah, has been used to smoke products with varying degrees of legality. Alomeiri, 44, is an energetic native of Jordan who arrived in Canada in mid-February, nearly three years ago. He came via Lebanon, where he lived for several years as a refugee. He remembers vividly his arrival to a bitterly cold city where he knew no one. "I walked around the downtown on my second day, exploring the city. It was very cold." A civil engineer by training, he quickly found work as a window washer, a business he had run in Lebanon. "When I was in Lebanon, I ran the business, but I didn't clean the windows myself. I had employees. I started washing windows and I also volunteered at Mission Services." That led to a full-time job at Mission Services for two years. However, before and during his time there, he worked at several other jobs, selling fruit and cleaning windows in what he describes as his spare time. That spare time for most people is when they sleep, but Alomeiri slept very little, and for all his pursuits he earned or gave himself the nickname Crazy Joe. A year ago, he started thinking about opening a cafe where he could showcase Middle Eastern food, drink and culture, a place where the roughly 40,000 Londoners of Arabic descent might come for a piece of their homelands.

When missionaries James and Stacy Hill came home from Turkey in 2001, one of the first things they looked for was health insurance. They couldn''t afford commercial insurance plans they saw, so they signed up with Medi-Share, a Christians-only bill-sharing program operated by the Florida-based nonprofit Christian Care Ministry. The Hills pay about $400 a month, and after a $250-per-person deductible, their eligible medical bills are paid in full. "It has saved us so much money, especially since we do have ongoing medical needs," said Hill, who has chronic neck pains and whose daughter has ulcerative colitis, which requires visits to specialists. With an estimated 700,000 South Carolinians and 47 million Americans without health insurance, it is no wonder people have been looking for alternative ways to pay for their health care. Medi-Share is one of three large Christian-based bill-sharing organizations in the country that let people pay into a pool, and get their medical bills paid in return. Illinois-based Samaritan and Ohio-based Christian Healthcare Ministries have similar programs. The $400 monthly share and $250-a-person deductible for Hill, her husband, who owns a window-washing company, and their home-schooled children, Bethany, Samuel and Nathan, was far less than premiums for commercial plans they had seen.

Anago Cleaning Systems Offers Franchise Opportunities in the Greater Phoenix Area: Anago Cleaning Systems, a franchise-based commercial cleaning company based in South Florida, is offering Arizona franchise opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in starting their own environmentally safe cleaning company in the greater Phoenix area. Anago, which was founded in 1989, has already made inroads in the Southwest with a host of Arizona cleaning services already up and running. Given its track record in the Valley of the Sun, Anago's Phoenix janitorial services offer not only a unique opportunity but also a proven pathway to success. Anago Cleaning Systems has made its mark in the commercial cleaning industry over two decades through its patented "Smart-Clean" cleaning system. This systematic system guarantees that every facility, no matter how large or small, is cleaned in the same methodical way each and every time. This attention to detail and the big picture is also a hallmark of the extensive training and education Anago provides its franchisees.

'We were desperate:' While eye-watering, at least the details of the loan are there in black and white. That’s more than can be said for the loan sharks and for a number of companies involved in another increasingly popular way of raising cash — the sale-and-rent-back game. These firms operate by buying houses from hard-up homeowners and then renting them back to them. The idea is that they give you cash in exchange for a stake in your property. That’s the theory. But as Jean and Michael Turner discovered, they don’t always play fair. In 2004, the couple, both in their 50s, had a £60,000 mortgage on their four-bedroom terrace house in Norwich. But when Michael, a window cleaner, became ill they began to struggle with their £500-a-month repayments. Faced with repossession in 2006, they were put in touch with Reading-based company Home Assured Ltd. A representative visited and persuaded them to sell the house for £100,000 — £20,000 less than its market value. The firm paid off the £60,000 mortgage, charged the Turners £20,000 to cover the costs of the transaction — and handed over the remaining £20,000 equity, only when housing charity Shelter became involved. To stay in the house, the Turners had to payHome Assured rent of £500 a month. If that wasn’t bad enough, the house was sold on by Home Assured to a second individual. He continued to take the rent — but defaulted on his mortgage. As a result, the house was repossessed last March, and the Turners, whose marriage has broken up through the stress, were made homeless and forced to move into council accommodation. ‘I lived in that street all my life,’ Mrs Turner says. ‘I had hoped to live there until I died. Everything has been taken from me. I know people will think we were stupid, but we were desperate.’ She adds: ‘I want to warn other people to be careful — these type of people prey on the vulnerable.’ While Home Assured Ltd, a company with a reputation for shoddy treatment, appears no longer to be trading, in the months and years to come the financially vulnerable won’t go away. Indeed, their numbers are set to grow as fast as the interest on a loan shark’s loan.