Sam Courtney-Guy

(Sam Courtney-Guy credited as Series Consultant for this investigative documentary series aired by BBC Three.) Mobeen Azhar investigates the story of a 20-year-old medical student who went from handing out cash to strangers to being at the centre of an alleged multi-million-pound scam.

Imagine a future where Earth becomes unshackled from the Sun’s gravitational pull and flies off into the void. And around three months later, it is violently torn apart in the space of a few minutes, leaving a cloud of atoms which then disintegrate in a tiny fraction of a second. That’s the fate that some physicists believe could befall our planet – along with all other celestial bodies in the universe at roughly the same time. It’s known as the ‘Big Rip’ theory of the end of the universe. It us...

Some of the redacted text in documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein case can be revealed using simple computer techniques, it has emerged. The 11,034 files released on Monday following an order by lawmakers were widely met with ridicule as huge chunks of text and many images were blacked out. But amateur sleuths soon discovered files where the redaction could be bypassed. In some cases, strings of words or entire paragraphs which appear to be hidden by a black...

A newly-reconstructed million-year-old skull could drastically rewrite our understanding of when and where modern humans first emerged. Analysis of the fossil, found in China, suggests Homo sapiens, our species, split off from its ancestors 400,000 years earlier than previously thought – and possibly in Asia, not Africa. The skull was found in Hubei Province in 1990 but was too badly crushed to be properly understood at the time. Researchers were able to determine its age and assumed it belonged...

Allotment holders who defeated one of the UK’s richest landowners in a ‘peasants’ revolt’ have accused him of renewed efforts to ‘bully’ them off their plots. Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, is battling opposition from the gardeners, councillors and hundreds of residents to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I listed Syon Park estate in west London. He wants to use the income from renting out the flats to fund £13 million of repairs at Syon House, which has been used to film scene...

Five years ago on Tuesday, a stretch of barren concrete under London’s Westway flyover known as Maxilla Walk became a refuge for families fleeing Grenfell Tower as it burned, killing 72 of their neighbours. In the months that followed, a team of amateur gardeners turned a 60-foot sliver of land along the passageway into a memorial for the victims, planting a riotous display of trees and flowers from around the world to reflect their varied backgrounds. Hope Gardens was set to commemmorate the...

A British man’s young family has been refused evacuation from Afghanistan after years of being kept apart from him by UK immigration policy. Ismail, 30, says his wife’s low level of English barred her and their children from joining him in Britain after they married six years ago. He claims they were turned away by British officials last week after a ‘false promise’ of rescue led them on a gruelling four-day ordeal in Kabul, where his five-year-old daughter and eight-month-old son were traumati...

Afghans with British relatives no longer need to meet visa requirements to settle in the UK, according to Home Office sources. A waiver was put in place to ease last-minute rescue efforts by the government, allowing evacuees to live in Britain without meeting normal immigration criteria such as proving their English language skills. But it only covered the families of British nationals if they were being evacuated with their family unit. Official guidance also instructed officials in Kabul to pr...

A City of London finance firm has been accused of helping illegal Instagram traders scam hundreds of people out of nearly £4 million using shell companies in the Caribbean. Some 1,250 people are believed to have lost sums from £500 to £88,000 when a seemingly successful foreign exchange investment scheme on a global trading platform called Infinox collapsed in 48 hours over Christmas 2019. Many blamed 22-year-old ‘self-made’ Forex trader Gurvin Singh, who promoted the scheme to his 170,000 follo...

A failing wedding company which lost £740,000 of couples’ deposits repeatedly ignored official warnings by refusing to refund them. Some 70 couples had paid deposits averaging £11,000 when organisers at Addington Palace, an 18th-century mansion set in a 160-acre estate near Croydon, went bust last month. Many had booked weddings up to a year ago which could not go ahead due to Covid restrictions – and have been battling to get their money back ever since. Sammy Ali, a 25-year-old digital media a...