Good morning, these are the latest ECHO headlines today.
MATRIX officers chase down stolen BMW as undercover drugs probe turns dramatic
MATRIX officers pursued a stolen BMW into a dead end before chasing those inside down an alley.
Footage released by police showed marked and undercover patrol cars following the X3 through the streets of Merseyside. They were chasing a teenager later jailed for a different car chase in which a police officer was injured.
That boy was Tre Freeman, today locked up again for even more offences. Freeman was seen dealing drugs from the BMW by undercover officers working on a major gang-busting operation in Cheshire early last year. It was established the vehicle was stolen and later involved in a chase through Newton le-Willows.
READ MORE: 'Lenny' gang sold heroin and cocaine next to families at children's play park
Freeman was caught by officers after ditching the vehicle - but no charges were brought after it was unclear whether he was driving at the time of the chase. The 19-year-old was of interest to Cheshire Police due to the work of a massive undercover initiative targeting the sale of heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of Warrington.
Freeman, of no fixed abode but from St Helens, was discovered to be the lead figure in a drug dealing graft nicknamed the JJ Line. Between November 2020 and January 2021, JJ line workers dealt to an undercover officer 15 times. Two of those sales were conducted by Freeman.
Read the full story from our Crime reporter Joe Thomas here.
Passport row mum says son 'sobbing' after missing skiing trip
A 10-year-old boy was left "screaming and sobbing" after he couldn't join his friends on a skiing trip because of passport delays.
Mum Kirsty Morgan applied to have her son Reuben Murphy's child passport renewed a full month ahead of the planned trip to the Italian ski resort of Bormio. But after what she claimed were repeated delays with the passport arriving, his mum had to tell him he couldn't join his school friends for the much-anticipated trip, before they all move on to secondary school later in the year.
Kirsty, 39, from Anfield, said: "I had to tell an excited 10 year old boy who's in his last year of school he's not going skiing with his friends. It was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. He was devastated, screaming and sobbing."
READ MORE : Two boys taken to hospital after being 'jumped by ten lads' in park
The mum-of-one said the Passport Office and courier firm TNT were "blaming each other" for the non-arrival of the child passport.
She added: "I was told I could have it cancelled and an emergency one reissued if I went to the passport office, so I did three times only to be told by a manager there was nothing they could do. No one could tell me exactly where my son's passport was."
Read the full story here.
DVLA banned number plates for 2022 announced
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has unveiled its list of banned number plates for 2022.
The DVLA offers tens of millions of registrations on its website, with the agency earning up to £160m a year from people looking to get their own personalised number plate. The agency assesses each request to determine whether the combination of letters and numbers is acceptable .
A DVLA spokesman explained the agency hold back "any combinations that may cause offence, embarrassment, or are in poor taste."
READ MORE: Toll roads could be brought in for drivers as fuel duty set to be slashed
They added: “Many people enjoy displaying a personalised registration number and there are over 50m registrations available on our website with almost endless possibilities of combinations to suit a person’s taste, interests and budget.”
New '22 plates were released on March 1 - and figures show a total of 343 have already been banned by the motoring body. BirminghamLive have revealed the latest set of registrations requests that have been turned down, on the grounds they were too rude or unsuitable.
Read more here.
