Central Solihull

Two men wanted in connection with a spate of poppy tin thefts in Solihull have been identified within an hour of a police social media appeal.

One man has been arrested and a second man is still being hunted by police.

Police received several calls from members of the public after they circulated CCTV footage of the suspected thieves on social media.

The appeal was launched as part of an investigation into seven thefts in Knowle, Meriden and Balsall Common, after businesses reported that charity boxes had been swiped from their countertops during the last week of October.

Two men who tricked a pensioner out of his bank card and then went shopping for designer jeans have been sentenced in court.

Zain Hussain and Mohammed Hussain were arrested at True Religion in the Birmingham's Bullring on March 4, when staff told police the pair were trying to use a suspicious card.

Officers soon discovered it had been taken from an 89-year-old man who had fallen victim to 'courier fraud' at his home in Solihull.

He’d been cold-called by someone claiming to be a police officer, who used a story to convince him to hand his card over to a courier who arrived at his house to collect it.

A police investigation showed this was not the first time they’d used stolen property to pay for designer clothes.

The 19-year-olds were linked to the purchase of almost a thousand pounds’ worth of jeans from the same shop in February. They'd bought the trousers after stealing a bank card from an 82-year-old Solihull woman.

The duo then bought a pair of Nike trainers for £230 using another card, this time stolen from an 85-year-old woman.

There was never enough evidence linking them to the original thefts, but both were charged with fraud offences for having and using the victims’ cards.

They were jointly charged with three counts of handling stolen goods and three counts of fraud by false representation, which both admitted at earlier hearings at Birmingham Crown Court.

Zain Hussain, of Woodall Road, Aston, was yesterday handed a 15-month sentence, while Mohammed Hussain, of Holte Road, Aston, received a 12-month community order.

A controversial application for a Muslim cemetery in a village in Solihull will be discussed by the Borough Council's Planning Committee today.

Campaigners oppose the 4,000-plot scheme at Catherine-de-Barnes, because it would be built on green belt land. The application is expected to be refused.

A 13-year-old boy from Solihull has been missing for two days and there are growing concerns for his welfare.

Connor Kells was last seen at home on Cropthorne Road at around 10am on Thursday 23 October and was spotted near a chip shop in Bordesley Green Road later that night.

The 13-year-old is described as white, 5ft 6ins tall, dark brown hair and brown eyes.

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of his parents in Solihull.

Carl Chang, of Hermitage Road in Solihull, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court this morning.

The 23-year-old was arrested after the bodies of Pin Change, 58, and Quoi Chang, 50, were found at a property in the same street on 7 July.

He appeared having been charged with two counts of murder. He was remanded into a secure mental health facility and will next appear at court on Wednesday 17 December.