Police have swooped to close a Basingstoke pub after a Crack House Closure Order was granted last week.

The Barbican pub, in Maldive Road, was the subject of a hearing last month and officers have successfully got it shut down. It is the first time a pub has been closed under these rules in north and east Hampshire and means no-one can enter the Popley boozer for three months. Aldershot Magistrates Court granted the closure order under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 on Wednesday, March...

Residents facing repossession or eviction don’t have to fight alone thanks to a landmark service from Basingstoke and Deane borough council.

A new Court Desk Service has been set up at Basingstoke county court for a year-long trial. Individuals attending court can receive help on their case, from advice, help with negotiations and representation in court.

Also available is an advisor from YOU, providing support to homeowners threatened with repossession by their mortgage lender. An...

A Basingstoke couple of been jailed for starting a fire in the home with the purpose of defrauding an insurance company.

Ian John Morgan claimed the fire, at his property in Haydn Road on June 20 2009,  was started by intruders. He was jailed for four years for committing arson, being reckless whether life would be endangered.

His girlfriend Zoe Ann Martin, was sentenced to two years for an act tending and intending to pervert the course of public justice. The pair appeared before...

A YOUNG driver has today (Friday) been jailed for causing death by dangerous driving following a collision in January 2009. Stephen Hamlyn was convicted at Winchester Crown Court and police hope his sentence will be a warning to other reckless motorists. On January 18 last year, the 21-year-old was travelling along the B3400 at Laverstoke and had overtaken another car.

He was believed to be chasing a third car but as he approached a bend, he came off the carriageway, up a bank and through...