Actor and comedian Russell Brand has pleaded guilty to speeding.

The 49-year-old was caught driving his Mini at 95mph on the M4 near Slough on 16 June 2024.

He also drove the car at 37mph in a 30mph zone in Shiplake, near his Oxfordshire home, on 23 March, High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court heard.

The former Radio 2 presenter was fined £3,457 and handed eight points on his licence.

Brand, who did not attend the short hearing, was handed three penalty points for the 37mph breach, and five for the 95mph speeding on top of the three points already on his licence – bringing his total to 11.

Drivers who get 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period face a ban.

Brand is currently under investigation by police over allegations of sex crimes made against him by multiple women.

An evidence file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if he should face charges.

It came after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches revealed last year that four women had accused him of sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013.

Brand denies the allegations and previously said all his sexual relationships were “absolutely always consensual”.

(BBC News)

A cyber hacker has pleaded guilty to stealing unreleased music from artists including Coldplay, Canadian singer Shawn Mendes and US singer Bebe Rexha.

Skylar Dalziel made about £42,000 by selling the tracks online, according to City of London Police.

Prosecutor Richard Partridge said she “selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web”.

The 22-year-old, of Winchester Gardens in Luton, admitted 11 copyright offences at Luton Crown Court and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.

Det Con Daryl Fryatt, from the force’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Stealing copyrighted material for your own financial gain is illegal.

“It jeopardises the work of artists and the livelihoods of the people who work with them to create and release their music.”

Dalziel got hold of the music by illegally accessing cloud storage accounts linked to the artists.

The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered a cloud account owned by Upsahl had been compromised and reported it to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in June 2021.

Forty unreleased tracks had been extracted and were being sold online, police said.

The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America identified an account on an online forum selling unreleased music from various artists and that account was linked to Dalziel.

Officers said they arrested Dalziel on 9 January 2023 and seized three drives which contained 291,941 music tracks.

They also found a spreadsheet which showed she had sold tracks to customers and her PayPal and bank accounts revealed she had received £42,049 from April 2021 to January 2023.

Some of this money was transferred to bank accounts in the US and City of London Police said it was working with Homeland Security Investigations to identify the people linked to the accounts.

Dalziel pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making for sale an article without licence of the copyright’s owner, one count of transferring criminal property and three counts of acquiring/using/possessing criminal property.

She was also sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work.

Det Con Fryatt said the sentencing “sends a clear message that we have the ability and tools to locate cyber criminals and hold them to account for their actions”.

(BBC News)

Beginning 06 January 2025, the Indian Film Fest will run across cities in Sri Lanka till 10 January 2025 presenting a curated selection of Indian films. The festival will be inaugurated on 06 January 2025 (Monday) at 6:30 PM with the screening of the Bollywood hit ‘83’ at PVR Cinema in Colombo.

Organised by the High Commission of India in Colombo and its posts in Kandy, Hambantota and Jaffna, in collaboration with the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, Colombo, the festival presents a rich collection of films spanning drama, romance, action, and historical epics. 

These films celebrate the diversity and vibrancy of Indian cinemas, offering audiences a glimpse into their multifaceted legacy.

In addition to Colombo, the festival will hold screenings in Badulla, Jaffna, Galle, Kurunegala, Matale, Matara and Nuwara Eliya. For the Colombo screening schedule, please refer to the festival brochure below. To book tickets, email to [email protected].

Entrance is free.