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THE INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS 50 cents (+GST) Friday, August 22, 2008 48 Pages www.independentfreepress.com Sgt. Derek Davis: Battling aggressive driving Page 10 Wheels & Car Care special section 8-Pages Jensen gets a taste of high-level volleyball Page 12 Stewarttown student lends a hand in Kenya Page 4 Editorial 6 Ted Brown 7 Sports 12, 13 Calendar 11, 14, 15 Recipe 16 Classifieds 19-21 INSIDE An Acton woman has come up with a solution to stop trash from blow- ing out of recycling bins. For details see Wednesdays edition. WEDNESDAY... Halton Police have released their mid-year statisti- cal report on crime in Halton and in short, fraud is up while violent crime is down. The analysis, created by the Halton Police Niche system, found that for the first six months of 2008 a total of 234 more criminal offences occurred than during the same period in 2007. This increase is being blamed on incidents of fraud, which jumped up from 400 offences by mid- year 2007 to 749 in 2008. Halton Police Chief Gary Crowell noted much of this increase can be chalked up to Internet scams and similar frauds that were not tallied before. Some of those infamous scams we see coming from African countries, from Eastern European coun- tries, we are now stating those as frauds, he said. Someone referred to the Internet a couple years ago as the wild, wild west and were still coming to grips with some of the things that are occurring on there, some of the crimes that are happening. We are putting resources into it. While fraud may be up, police reported a 10.5 per cent decrease in violent crime with 1,330 incidents in 2007 dropping to 1,190 incidents during the same period in 2008. This decrease included a drop in non-sexual assault, which fell from 890 incidents in 2007 to 774 in 2008. REFINANCING? PURCHASING? BOB WOODS Mortgage Specialist (905) 877-1490 *Rate subject to change 360 Guelph St., Georgetown 5.14%. 5 YR FIXED GEORGETOWN CALL THE GEORGETOWN HEADQUARTERS 905-877-7818 or 905-877-8375 0% financing on all 2008 models. See us for details. i i ll . f t il . For breaking news go to: www.independentfreepress.com Halton Hills award-winning newspaper A room with a view Future fourth floor residents Ingrid and Gord Bassett at The Gallery at Bennett Vi l lage enjoyed a toast to their future as they enjoyed a moment checking out the scenery from their unit. The recent topping ceremony allowed future resi- dents an opportunity to have a look at their units. (Below) Every topping ceremony features a flag being presented to the con- tractor to fly from the crane or the rooftop of the building, and future residents John and June Lenz presented a flag to David Borean (right), who is the site superintendent for Todd Glen, the building contractor. Photos by Ted Brown Police stats show Fraud cases on the rise If you have sent an e-mail to any staff member at The Independent & Free Press since last Friday evening were asking you to resend it. A major malfunction in the Metroland Media Groups e-mail sys- tem occurred late last week, prevent- ing us from sending or receiving e- mails for the past few days. The malfunction affected most of the community newspapers and maga- zines in the Metroland Media Group. The system was up and running yes- terday (Thursday) morning. A list of staff e-mail addresses can be found on page 6. The Independent & Free Press apolo- gizes for the inconvenience. E-mail system up and running See STATS, pg. 4 DAVID LEA Special to The IFP