Mystery over 'unusually large' Roman shoes

3 hours ago Share Save Jason Arunn Murugesu BBC News, North East and Cumbria Share Save

The Vindolanda Trust Dr Elizabeth Greene says eight of the shoes at the site are over 30cm (11.8in) long

Unusually large shoes discovered at a Roman fort have left archaeologists baffled. Earlier this year, 32 shoes were dug up at the Magna Roman Fort in Northumberland, eight of which were at least 30cm (11.8in) long - the equivalent of a UK size 13 to 14. In comparison, of the 5,000 discovered at the nearby Vindolanda settlement in Hexham over the past 55 years, just four or five were that large, according to Roman archaeology expert Dr Elizabeth Greene. Archaeologist Rachel Frame said it was still too early to explain the mystery behind the eight large shoes.

Ms Frame said the leather shoes had all been found in a defensive ditch, which the Romans also used as rubbish dumps. The largest found at Magna Roman Fort was 32.6cm (12.8in) long, she said. She said there were several theories surrounding their origin. "We have to assume it's something to do with the people living here, having bigger feet, being potentially taller but we don't know," she said. "Are the people living there from a specific region? Could that be why their shoes are so much larger? But at the moment, it's sort of, well, this is unusual."

The Vindolanda Trust The largest shoe found was 32.6cm (12.8in) long

The team knows very little about the shoes, other than the fact they are likely to be close to 2,000 years old. Later this year, it will analyse pottery found in the same soil layers as the shoes to help determine which time period they are from. This can be achieved in several ways, Ms Frame said, including looking at the style of the pottery and checking whether those styles were produced at certain times. Beyond the large shoes, the team also found children's shoes at the site. Ms Frame said the team hoped to have a better idea of who was living there at different time periods following more analysis.

The Vindolanda Trust The shoes were found in a defensive Roman ditch during a dig

So many shoes have been found at both Vindolanda and Magna Roman Fort because of their ground conditions, Ms Frame said. Due to low oxygen conditions in the soil at the sites, the leather shoes have been preserved for centuries. The team also recently found a wooden hair comb on the site. "It looks like a modern day knit comb," said Ms Frame.

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'£54k to rent five phones is killing my business'

3 hours ago Share Save Caroline Bilton BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Investigations Share Save

BBC/Caroline Bilton Graphic designer Gary Pride from Bradford says he may lose his business because of his phone contract

Thousands of small businesses across the UK are being charged "grossly inflated" prices to rent phone equipment on lengthy finance deals because of "unethical" sales practices used by various companies, experts have told a BBC investigation. Some business owners say the costly contracts are leaving them on the brink of collapse.

Gary Pride's business has survived a recession, a fire and the uncertainty of the Covid pandemic. But what is leaving his business on the verge of closure is the £54,432, excluding VAT, that he is paying over 10 years to rent just five phones and related software. He says signing his phone contract has "ruined his life", adding: "I've not been paying myself so I could pay that bill, every month." Mr Pride, who has run his graphic design business for 19 years, says the financial stress has affected his mental health. Breaking down in tears as he speaks from his workshop in Bradford, Mr Pride says his sleep has been affected and he has been taking antidepressants. "I feel I've let myself down and I've let all my staff down," he says. Mr Pride first signed with the telecoms company 4Com in 2017. The contract he signed was a seven-year finance deal with a separate company to rent 4Com's HiHi phones and software. He says the true cost of his contract was only revealed after a two-year "introductory offer" from 4Com ended and his monthly bills soared from just over £200 per month to more than £550 per month.

'No choice but to stay with them'

The contracts, seen by the BBC, do state they are a "universal rental agreement" and that the customer would be "billed separately for the system rental by a third-party funder". However, Mr Pride claims he was not made verbally and fully aware of the finance deal at the time of signing, and the total cost to his business. "I just feel like I've been conned," he says, adding "no-one on this planet would have signed" had they known the true extent of the contract. He complained to 4Com and was offered a chance to upgrade his phones and receive a "loyalty rebate" if he signed a new contract. He says he had "no choice but to stay with them" in order to keep his monthly payments down. His new seven-year contract included another finance deal for the upgraded phones but he still had to pay for the initial agreement - bringing his total amount of finance to more than £54,000 to be paid over 10 years. This money, owed to the finance company, is on top of additional fees he has to pay 4Com for services such as maintenance and broadband. It is a sum of money Mr Pride is finding difficult to accept. "I could get a top-of-the-range Range Rover for what I've paid for them," he says, adding: "I just feel stupid." Mr Pride says he cannot afford the £24,584 he has been quoted by the finance company to exit the agreement early. He is one of several cases seen by the BBC who have signed a second lease agreement just two years into their long-term contracts.

BBC/Caroline Bilton The HiHi phone system is unique to 4Com and its price is not publicly available

A former 4Com senior manager, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC it was not uncommon for the company to tie customers into multi-year leases which 4Com appeared to frame as "upgrades". "They're not only getting ripped off once, they're getting ripped off again two or three years later and 4Com are repeatedly receiving money from the same deal," they said. They said the Bournemouth-based company, which says it has around 17,000 customers nationwide, was making "hundreds of thousands a month" out of the "grossly inflated" deals. Mr Pride is one of more than 160 small business owners who contacted the BBC after an undercover investigation last year. They claim to have been mis-sold phone contracts and leasing agreements by 20 different telecoms companies using the same finance firms. They all claim the sales pitch differed from what was in the written contract and the sales representatives had not drawn their attention to the fact they would be renting equipment on finance and would face extra charges. They say they were not given time to read the contracts and were strongly encouraged to sign on the spot.

Once they had signed, all were tied in for five or seven years. Unlike consumer contracts, there is no cooling-off period for business-to-business contracts in the UK. More than half of those who contacted the BBC were 4Com customers running small family businesses, with fewer than 10 employees, and spoke of the toll it was taking on them: One woman called the BBC in tears claiming she was on the brink of losing her business

Another said the confusing contracts had left them "unsure exactly what we are paying"

In one case, a company was offered a discount on its termination contract if it agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement 4Com says it is transparent with customers about its prices and services, and strongly denies the claims that it has inflated prices and customers have been mis-sold contracts. It says upgrades are not compulsory and that all sums and upgrade details had been transparently presented to Mr Pride. A spokesperson says the "historic examples" the BBC shared with the company relate to less than 1% of its customers. The BBC secretly filmed a 4Com sales pitch last year in which a salesman verbally told the customer things that did not match the written contract: The salesman said the price per month would be fixed, and only admitted it was not when he was questioned about it after prompting us to sign. The contract showed that after the first year the customer could potentially be paying thousands of pounds more over the remainder of their contract

He said any upgrade would mean the customer's initial contract would be "wiped" - but customers like Mr Pride, who agreed to upgrades, were still paying for their old equipment even after they had upgraded

The salesman did tell the customer he was signing a "lease purchase" but said after five years, the customer would own the equipment - but the contract said it was rented 4Com says its checks and balances on the sales process, and extensive staff training, go beyond common industry practice. The salesperson we filmed no longer works for 4Com.

BBC undercover filming shows 4Com sales pitch

The BBC showed several 4Com contracts to four independent telecoms experts with extensive industry experience. Although the cost of a HiHi phone is not made publicly available, the experts believed customers had been charged inflated prices - in some cases many times more than "the industry standard". They told us some of the additional services mentioned by 4Com came as standard with other suppliers and other services were not necessary for small businesses. They also alleged that leasing companies were "enabling" and "approving exploitative agreements" at the expense of small businesses. One expert, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the seven-year contracts appeared designed "solely to maximise finance revenue rather than meet a legitimate business need". Another expert, Jonny Rae, a telecoms consultant who has worked in the industry for 15 years, described the prices as "outrageous" but said he was "not surprised" as the "unethical" practices had been going on "for over a decade".

BBC/Caroline Bilton Telecoms expert Jonny Rae says the prices being charged are "outrageous"

4Com told the BBC it offers small businesses "superior telephony solutions" giving a "competitive edge for a fair price", and has the loyalty of thousands of customers. It says most have "no complaints" about its sales process but that where necessary, it has a "strong track record" of fixing issues quickly. 4Com says the price comparison to cheaper products is unfair because the HiHi phone is high quality, and its prices include additional services. But Mr Rae said customers were being charged for basic services such as call logs, which "come with any telephone system for free". He said it was "almost laughable" that they were being "bundled" into a finance agreement and approved by a finance company. "It's the opposite of transparent," he said. "It's confusing enough to me - let alone the customer." Richard Jackson runs a small letting agency in Sheffield. He signed a finance agreement through 4Com in 2021 which charged him more than £20,000 for three phones and software. Although he felt "angry", "ripped off" and "trapped", Mr Jackson needed a fourth phone. When he asked for a price, 4Com offered to provide four Yealink handsets on a new £40,391 seven-year finance deal, excluding VAT. Experts told the BBC all four phones could easily be bought outright for less than £2,000. They said even when software had been taken into account, the figure quoted to Mr Jackson had been "grossly inflated".

BBC/Richard Jackson Richard Jackson says he could buy his "dream bike" for the money he is spending on his seven-year rental agreement

Starmer seeks to end speculation about Reeves' future

31 minutes ago Share Save Sam Francis Political reporter Brian Wheeler Political reporter Share Save

Watch: Starmer says past few days have 'been tough'

Sir Keir Starmer has sought to calm the markets and end speculation about Rachel Reeves' future after the chancellor was seen crying in the House of Commons. The pound plummeted and government borrowing costs rose after the incident at prime minister's questions on Wednesday, when Sir Keir failed to guarantee that Reeves would keep her job. He later insisted that he and Reeves were in "lockstep", telling the BBC that "she will be chancellor for a very long time to come". UK borrowing costs have fallen this morning, suggesting the message is getting through, but questions remain about the cause of Reeves' tears, with no further details being given about the personal matter said to be behind it.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir used an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson to admit he "did not engage" properly with Labour MPs before a series of damaging U-turns on his flagship welfare reforms.

Sir Keir told Robinson's Political Thinking podcast the chancellor's tears had had "nothing to do with politics" or this week's welfare U-turns - which potentially blows a hole in her Budget plans. "That's absolutely wrong," said Sir Keir. "Nothing to do with what's happened this week. It was a personal matter for her, I'm not going to intrude on her privacy by talking to you." On Tuesday, the government avoided defeat on its proposals to overhaul disability benefits by offering late concessions to Labour MPs threatening to rebel. The prime minister said he took responsibility for the episode, admitting it had been a "tough" few days but insisting the government would "come through this stronger" after a period of reflection. He said he "did not get that process right" and "did not engage in the way we should have done". Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Thursday, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said he "felt for" Reeves, and the incident showed politicians "are all human beings". But he accused the government of making "serious mistakes" and "bungling and chaos", which he predicted would lead to tax rises in the autumn. Health Secretary Wes Streeting gave the chancellor his full support saying she "will bounce back" and "is here to stay". The prime minister was said to be completely unaware Reeves was crying beside him at PMQs on Wednesday, and was said to be puzzled when an aide raised her visible upset with him after the Commons session. The chancellor's sister, the MP Ellie Reeves, accompanied the chancellor and held her hand as she left the chamber. Reeves' tears were noticed by Conservative MPs sitting opposite - one member of the frontbench described it as "horrible to watch". Many colleagues and allies of Reeves in Parliament are blaming an altercation with the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for upsetting her. Several have accused him of having been abrupt with the chancellor in a meeting before PMQs. It is thought to have been about an interaction they had during Treasury questions on Tuesday in which Sir Lindsay asked her to give shorter answers. The chancellor's team have declined to comment, as has the Speaker's office.

Reeves appears tearful during PMQs

The prime minister's comments come after a chaotic few days in Westminster, which saw Labour MPs revolt over proposed changes to the personal independence payment (Pip). The government had initially planned to tighten eligibility criteria, but faced mounting opposition from within its own ranks. Despite holding a commanding majority, Sir Keir's administration appeared caught off guard by the scale of the backlash. More than 120 Labour MPs threatened to vote against the bill, prompting a series of last-minute concessions. Ahead of Tuesday's vote, ministers had already watered down their plans once by reversing some cuts to universal credit and protecting current Pip claimants from stricter eligibility rules. However some Labour MPs were still concerned the new criteria for claiming Pip would come into force before the recommendations of a review could be implemented. Fearing a humiliating defeat, the government announced a further U-turn, saying it would not change Pip rules until it had time to consider the review's conclusions. The 11th hour changes leave the government's Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill gutted of its most significant measures. Speaking to Nick Robinson in a pre-planned interview to mark a year in office, Sir Keir admitted he "didn't get that process right". "We didn't engage in the way we should have done." He said that "Labour politicians come into public life because they care deeply", especially about issues like disability benefits. Sir Keir insisted he remained committed to reforming the welfare system. "There is a very, very strong agreement in the Labour Party that we do need to reform the system," he said. "But I'm not one of these ideological thinkers. I'm a pragmatist."

Despite the turmoil, Sir Keir said he "would not swap a single day of the last year" for life on the opposition benches. "I came into politics to change lives, after nine long years in opposition," he said. Sir Keir said he was "really proud of what we've achieved because we have changed the lives of people".

Diddy denied bail after being cleared of most serious charges

10 hours ago Share Save Madeline Halpert & Sakshi Venkatraman BBC News Reporting from New York court Share Save

Watch: The BBC's Nomia Iqbal looks at what comes next after Diddy verdict

A judge has denied bail to Sean "Diddy" Combs after a jury convicted the hip-hop mogul of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted him of the most serious charges: racketeering and sex-trafficking. Lawyers for the recording artist had argued he posed no flight risk, pointing out his jet is being chartered in Hawaii. But Judge Arun Subramanian cited Combs' history of violence as he ruled the rapper must remain behind bars until sentencing later this year when he faces up to 20 years in prison. In the nearly two-month federal trial in New York City, prosecutors accused Combs of using his celebrity status and business empire to run a criminal enterprise to sex traffic women.

A panel of 12 jurors deliberated for 13 hours before acquitting Combs of three of the most serious five charges. He will continue to be held at the same federal jail in Brooklyn where he has been detained since last September. The sentencing was tentatively scheduled for 3 October.

Getty Images Casandra Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2018

Combs' attorney, Marc Agnifilo, made an impassioned argument for the judge to release his client. The defence lawyer said Combs had attended a programme for perpetrators of domestic violence to try to reform his conduct, even before he was arrested, and that he had not been violent since 2018. "I just think we should trust him," Agnifilo said. But Combs' ex-girlfriend, musician Casandra Ventura, had warned the court in a letter that the hip-hop mogul posed a danger if released.

Watch: BBC reporter inside courtroom on reaction as Diddy verdict read

The rapper had acknowledged domestic violence, but denied any non-consensual sexual encounters or a larger racketeering scheme. Judge Subramanian said bail was being denied because "the defence conceded violence in his personal relationship". The mood in court was emotional after jurors announced they had acquitted Combs of the most serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Sex trafficking and racketeering both carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. As Combs learned the verdict, he got on his knees, put his face into his chair and appeared to be praying. He was shaking. The verdict comes a day after jurors told the court they had reached a decision on the sex-trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges against Combs, but were unable to decide on the racketeering count.

Watch: Former prosecutor explains what Diddy's sentencing could look like

The jurors said they had had "unpersuadable" opinions on both sides about the charge, which was the most complicated of any of the counts Combs faced. Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge. To convict Combs on this charge, prosecutors had to prove he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice. Defence lawyers argued the case could not be considered to be racketeering if members of Combs' staff were not knowingly complicit. Prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses over the course of the seven-week trial, including Ms Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, several ex-employees and hotel security workers. They alleged Combs had relied on employees to coerce his partners into so-called "freak-offs", in which his girlfriends would have sex with a male escort while he watched and filmed.

Reuters Combs' family leaves court on Wednesday

The government relied on testimony from Ms Ventura, who took the witness stand while eight-months pregnant, telling the court that Combs had pressured her into sex acts and threatened to release tapes of the freak-offs if she disobeyed. Ms Ventura warned on Wednesday that Combs would pose a danger if granted bail. In a letter filed to the court, her attorney Douglas Wigdor wrote: "Ms Ventura believes that Mr Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community." At the centre of their case was a video of the rapper beating and dragging Ms Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016 - surveillance footage that security employees testified Combs tried to pay them to delete. Combs' attorneys conceded their client was violent towards women, but argued that his behaviour was motivated by drugs and jealousy, not evidence of a larger sex trafficking and racketeering scheme. Combs is also facing dozens of civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and violence. The Harlem-born rapper founded Bad Boy Records in 1993, a label that represented some of the biggest names in hip hop - including Notorious B.I.G. and Usher. He went on to establish a clothing line called Sean John and a variety of other businesses including fragrances, alcohol and even a media company.

New Zealand coach Scott Robertson has described Fabian Holland's rise as "movie stuff" as the Dutch-born lock prepares to make his All Blacks debut against France on Saturday.

The 22-year-old is one of four uncapped players in the starting XV to face Les Bleus in the first Test at Dunedin.

Holland watched the All Blacks sevens team train in his hometown of Castricum in the Netherlands in 2014 aged 11 and moved to New Zealand five years later to pursue his dream of playing professional rugby.

"He's pretty excited. From Zeeland to New Zealand," Robertson said on Thursday.

"He's come a long way. It's a great story. Pretty single-minded from a kid to make that call to come over and represent another country in a game he loves - and he saw the All Blacks as the ultimate.

"It's movie stuff, isn't it?"

Holland met All Blacks sevens captain DJ Forbes and Akira Ioane when they trained at Castricum Rugby Club, where he had played since the age of five.

"As soon as I was on the field I was a different little boy, to be honest," Holland said in an interview in 2021, external.

"I developed more and more passion about rugby and there are not a lot of countries like New Zealand when it comes to passion about rugby.

"I always dreamed of coming but it never felt real for me. When I was 16 I got the opportunity to come to New Zealand and I've been living the dream every day. I still have to pinch myself that it's real."

Holland initially arrived in New Zealand for a six-month spell at Christchurch Boys' High School but his rise has been rapid.

He started on a developmental contract with the Highlanders in 2021 and signed a professional deal with the Super Rugby side the following year.

On Saturday he will line up alongside his former Otago and Highlanders team-mate Christian Lio-Willie, who is also set to make his All Blacks debut.

Robertson said it was fitting that Holland's first cap would come at Forsyth Barr Stadium, home of the Highlanders.

"I'm sure Fabian's Highlanders supporters, and Christian's Otago fans, will be out in full force," Robertson said.