A man has described how criminals pretending to be bailiffs almost tricked him into paying thousands of pounds to settle a fictitious debt as part of an elaborate scam.

In what has been reported as a growing problem, people are phoned up and told bailiffs are on the way to their home to remove their possessions and that the only way to call them off is to settle the debt with a local court.

A convincing fake of the court’s phone service then tries to take payment with the criminals hoping the panic of the approaching bailiffs will persuade them to part with their cash.

Paul, from Northumberland, told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours it started with a phone call out of the blue.

“I answered the call and he then proceeded to say he was a bailiff and he was ringing because there’d been a county court judgment against me the previous summer in Worcester Crown Court and I owed £2,950 plus his fee of £970,” he said.

He was then told: “‘The boys and I are going to come round later today to collect furniture from your house to the value of the finding.'”

The man on the phone told Paul, who rents out holiday cottages on his farm, the debt related to unpaid social media marketing fees.

“I was astonished and terrified, actually, at the same time,” he said.

The man gave Paul a number to contact the court for details.

Although the number was bogus, Paul encountered the court’s genuine automated switchboard message – which the criminals had duplicated to make the scam more convincing.

When he was put through to someone, Paul was told he had unpaid “marketing expenses”.

He then received what looked like genuine court documents by email – which have been shared with the BBC – detailing the debts that had apparently built up.

Paul was asked to transfer the money to the personal bank account of a “court appointed adviser” who was working as a freelancer.

“At this point, alarm bells were ringing loud and clear,” he said.

Paul then searched online for the correct contact number for the court, and realised the one he had been given was wrong, just as another email asking for payment arrived, from an unlikely-looking dot com email address.

“All the way through all of this, I keep having phone calls from the alleged bailiff wanting me to tell him that I had sent the money,” he said.

“He said not until the money has been sent will he call off the action of the guys with the fists who would come around and steal all my furniture.”

Victoria, who lives in Cheshire, was also targeted with the scam.

When her phone rang, she was told the “enforcement officers” were 40 minutes away and were coming to remove items from her home.

“I kind of went into panic mode,” she said.

The man told her he couldn’t discuss details over the phone, but would give her the details of Chester County Court who she could call for an explanation.

“I was on the phone for ages,” said Victoria.

“I couldn’t get through. So because I couldn’t get through and the bailiff was on the way, I was panicking even more.”

She said she was able to get through to another man, also a scammer, who told her she had built up debt through Google advertising – and because she remembered speaking to Google several years ago, this seemed plausible.

Victoria, who works for a funeral business, had never actually bought Google advertising, but the man told her she had used a free trial and failed to cancel it.

Victoria was told she should have appeared in court and that there was a warrant out for her arrest.

“I just wanted to send the money over there and then,” she said.

“As I was on my computer setting it up another bailiff rang me and he was on his way and he was the nasty bailiff, he was the horrible bailiff.

“He was just saying that he was now 10 minutes away and he was coming to clear the property and to get the bank transfer done as soon as possible.”

As she set up the payment on her online banking, her husband had searched online for the correct number for the court and called it – but was number 30 in the queue.

“He was walking out the room saying he would never speak to me again if I sent the money,” she said.

“And I just wanted to stop the bailiffs.”

A warning on Victoria’s online bank that the details she’d been given were for a personal – not a business – account sowed the first seeds of doubt in her mind – just as her husband got through to the genuine court who told them not to pay.

It was a near miss for both Paul and Victoria.

“They sort of almost had me,” said Paul.

“You go into a mode of shock where you’re not really thinking terribly clearly.

“And also there was sufficient plausibility in some of it because they claimed that I’d failed to pay marketing expenses for the holiday cottage business that I do actually run. And they’d rung me on my mobile number and they knew my name.

“There were a few question marks where it felt as though it could have been real – sufficient to make me terrified…”

The Ministry of Justice said it was a criminal offence to impersonate a bailiff, and that anyone receiving a similar call should hang up and find the correct number for the court.

Sarah Naylor, from the trade body for bailiffs, the Civil Enforcement Association, said there had been an increase in the number of reports her organisation received about these tactics, and that these were likely to be the tip of the iceberg as few victims would think to notify genuine bailiffs after being scammed.

“These scam companies work on the basis of urgency and fear,” she said.

Genuine enforcement officers will always reschedule and allow people time to check details, she said, and would never only offer one payment option.

“Take a breath and reflect,” she advised anyone receiving a similar call.

“Does this seem right? Is this the first you’ve heard about it? Does it seem suspicious? Keep calm and understand more about the debt and if that individual isn’t helping you with that, then it’s very likely that they’re not a legitimate enforcement agent.”

With two major musicals in the awards race this year, it was only right that host David Tennant opened the Bafta Film Awards with a tune of his own.

The Scottish star kicked off proceedings with a storming rendition of The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles, featuring contributions from Selena Gomez, Colman Domingo, Anna Kendrick, Hugh Grant and Camila Cabello.

The energy remained high throughout the ceremony, which saw Conclave and The Brutalist take the most prizes with four each.

Backstage, the stars were in equally good spirits, even if a few of them were jet-lagged, hungry, and remarking on how heavy the Bafta trophy is to carry around.

Here are eight highlights from the winners’ room:

When Anora star Mikey Madison collected the best actress award, she started by admitting to the audience that she hadn’t prepared a speech.

Backstage, she jokingly blamed this on Robert De Niro, whom she recently appeared with on The Graham Norton Show.

“I just wish that I’d had a better speech,” she said.

“I was on a talk show and Robert De Niro told me not to write a speech and I thought, I should probably listen to him. And I forgot to thank so many important people.”

Madison was overwhelmed but overjoyed with the recognition from Bafta.

“I think I’m a little disassociated right now,” she says, “I love making movies, and being an actress is my dream, and for my film to be recognised like this is incredibly special.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever fully grasp the magnitude of being in a room like that, full of my idols, incredible creatives who I admire so much.”

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl won two prizes for its producer Richard Beek and directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. The trio brought their famous characters along with them to the ceremony

Crossingham reflected on the fact that stories about a cheese enthusiast and his loyal but long-suffering dog always seem to go down so well in the US, despite the films firmly rooted in UK culture.

“It is remarkable that our very Britishness is embraced in America,” he told journalists.

He highlighted one particular reference in Vengeance Most Fowl: the TV presenter in the film is called Anton Deck, a reference to Geordie duo Ant & Dec.

“There are some jokes, like Anton Deck, which are very British. In the American screenings, there was complete silence apart from one Brit guffawing in the corner.

“But we’re very proud of that, we stick to our guns. Apart from one or two very specific gags like that, it seems to be embraced.

“And even if they’re laughing at us, not with us, if they’re laughing, we’re still happy about that.”

Jesse Eisenberg, who won best original screenplay for A Real Pain, walked into the winners’ room carrying his Bafta and asking journalists: “Am I expected to hold this heavy thing the whole time?”

After being reassured he was allowed to put it down as he answered questions, he reflected on the fact that the screenwriting prizes he’s won for A Real Pain have both been in the UK.

“The other award I won for this was the London Film Critics prize, so I must be living the wrong country,” he joked.

“My background is playwright, and when one of my plays transferred to the West End it was far more popular. I don’t know what it is, maybe I’m a novelty here and in America I’m boring.”

Eisenberg was also asked about his relationship with co-star Kieran Culkin, who won best supporting actor. But, he said, it’s not as close as people might imagine.

“In terms of our dynamic, I’ll text him today and say, ‘hey you won the Bafta, I’m so proud of you’. And then three weeks later my phone will buzz and it’ll be [Culkin saying]: ‘Hey, I just got this, thanks’.”

“That’s the closeness with which you imagine we live.”

Zoe Saldaña continued her awards season sweep of the best supporting actress category with another win at Bafta, despite the recent controversies faced by her film Emilia Pérez.

Backstage, she reflected on her biggest number in the Spanish-language musical, El Mal, which is also up for best original song at the Oscars.

“Not getting in my own way was the challenge,” she said of shooting it. “Sometimes you can become very heady about something and you overthink it.

“What you have to do is trust the process… Rehearsing the dance was about reconnecting with a part of me I had missed so much but I had since let go of for more than 20 years.

“Reconnecting with that, dusting off all those cobwebs and jumping into the unknown was what needed to happen.”

Asked about the importance of performing the musical in Spanish, she replies: “It’s my first language, I was spoken to first, sung to first, in Spanish.

“We love we live, we fight, we work, in Spanish. And my art has [previously] only lived in a very English way. So that yearning to connect my culture with my art was meaningful to me.”

Warwick Davis was the recipient of this year’s Bafta Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest honour.

“It’s very overwhelming, this whole thing,” he said. “You win the award and then you have to talk to loads of people, feeling very shiny.”

(Everyone was feeling sweaty backstage by this point.)

Asked about the moment he heard he was this year’s winner, Davis said: “I was on the toilet when I found out!

“[Bafta] notified me by email, and I do most of my administration work on the toilet. I might call it paperwork but then you’d get the wrong idea,” he jokes.

“Then I got an email from Bafta saying I’d won the fellowship, and I got all excited, and then it suddenly dawned on me, is this a fake email? Some sort of scam?

“So I clicked on the email address, and it really was Bafta. Then I finished up at the loo, you probably didn’t need that detail, and then went and celebrated with the kids.”

Adrien Brody’s reaction to winning best actor might have been slightly hampered by how hungry he is.

“I haven’t eaten anything yet, so I’m not sure how I’m feeling, but I’m so happy to be here,” he says backstage.

Brody is asked about the surge his career has enjoyed in recent months thanks to The Brutalist, more than two decades after his last awards run for The Pianist.

“The beauty of being an actor is that any life experience, and there have been many since [The Pianist], anything you’ve experienced is so valuable in shaping a sense of understanding,” he reflects.

“So the moments of triumph, loss, complexity along your path, they give you an ability to represent those more truthfully and authentically in your work.

“I’m just so grateful to have had this meaningful opportunity come my way, I’ve been yearning for this for a long time.

“I’ve been working very hard. It’s not for a lack of hard work, but there are so many magical things that have to happen for a film to achieve greatness and I’m so happy that all of those things conspired on The Brutalist.”

And with that, he’s off to have some supper.

Conclave won best film and best British film, becoming the first movie to take the top two prizes since 1917 (the film, not the year).

“I am so humbled and so grateful to be welcomed here so openly with such warmth and open arms,” its German director Edward Berger says of the UK. “Basically, I just want to live here, I’m never going to leave.”

He likens the cast of Pope drama Conclave, which includes Stanley Tucci, Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossallini, to an orchestra.

“No-one really knows [why a cast works so well], but you have a hunch, so there’s a lot of discussion – we put pictures up on the wall and it just felt like a good combination,” he explained.

“They were all believable cardinals, all different nationalities and accents, it just felt they were all different instruments in a big musical piece.”

The Brutalist’s Brady Corbet might have won best director, but he said he was slightly too “jet-lagged and exhausted” to fully process it.

As much as he’s enjoying awards season, he notes: “It’ll be amazing when it’s done, I’m looking forward to getting back to work.”

Corbet is not shy of hard work – making the Brutalist was famously a labour of love which took several years. “We basically just didn’t sleep,” he says. “I haven’t had a day off in years.”

Now that awards campaigning is in its final phase however, with voting for the Oscars closing on Monday, he should finally get some down time. “The week leading up to the Oscars is actually pretty quiet, I’m looking forward to it.”

The Brutalist, a 3.5-hour film with an intermission, has been a relative box office success despite its intimidating duration.

“I’m not trying to teach anyone a lesson or anything,” he says, “but I do think it’s good for the ecosystem that a film like this which is completely uncompromised – I don’t like too many cooks in my kitchen – for that to have made $30m globally so far, that’s exciting.

“All the things you’re told not to do, when those films are proven to be commercially viable, and people want original, daring movies, it makes me feel more optimistic than usual.'”

More than 40 people, mostly women, were killed after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Mali on Saturday.

The collapse took place near Kéniéba, in Mali’s western, gold-rich Kayes region.

The victims had climbed into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth around them caved in, a gold miner’s union leader told Reuters.

This is Mali’s second deadly mining accident in three weeks, after at least 10 people were killed when a mining tunnel flooded late in January.

Reports of the exact number who died in Saturday’s accident are conflicting.

A local police source told the AFP news agency that 48 people were killed in the collapse, while the head of an industry union told Reuters there were 43 victims.

“Some of the victims fell into the water. Among them was a woman with her baby on her back,” the local police source told AFP.

Mali is one of the biggest gold producers in the world. Accidents are common in the country as much mining activity is unregulated, with miners using unsafe methods to dig for gold.

Just over a year ago, at least 40 people were killed after a tunnel collapsed in a mine.

A spokesperson from the country’s mines ministry confirmed to Reuters that the accident had taken place between the towns of Kéniéba and Dabia, but declined to give further details.

Ministry teams are drawing up a report at the scene, Reuters reports.

The collapse on Saturday occurred at an abandoned site formerly operated by a Chinese company, according to AFP.

Beijing is heavily invested in developing Mali’s mining industries, with the approval of its government.

Mali is currently engaged in a dispute over revenue sharing with one of the largest mining companies in the country, the Canadian firm Barrick.

Last month, the Malian government seized gold bars worth $245m (£194m) from Barrick and issued an arrest warrant for its CEO, Mark Bristow.

Mr Bristow said he had “no doubt” the conflict would be resolved in an interview with Bloomberg this week.

On Sunday morning, the New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital looked much like it always does; bustling, with its many platforms full of eager, impatient passengers waiting to catch their trains.

But on Saturday night, a deadly crush – reportedly caused by overcrowding – killed at least 18 people and left several injured.

According to officials, two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third – heading to Prayagraj city where the massive Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, is being held – was waiting to depart as people pushed against each other.

The crush occurred after “a passenger slipped and fell on the stairs”, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said.

Opposition leaders have criticised the government, alleging that Indian Railways did not make adequate arrangements to manage crowds at the station.

An investigation has been launched, and authorities have announced compensation for the victims.

When asked by the BBC about safety and security at the station, Pankaj Gangwar, Principal Chief Security Commissioner of Northern Railway, said “let the investigation be completed first”.

Crushes like these are not unheard of in India, where there is frequent overcrowding at religious events, festivals and public spaces. Last month, 30 people were killed and dozens injured in a crush at the Kumbh Mela.

Crowds at the railway station were also not unexpected – trains are by far the cheapest long-distance mode of transport in India and it is common for the number of passengers to far exceed the capacity of trains.

Eyewitnesses and the families of victims have been recounting their ordeal. Many of them were angry at authorities and police officials at the railway station, who they say did not act in time.

Some eyewitnesses said the crush was not limited to one place but took place on the overhead bridge, staircases and platforms.

Bipin Jha was at the station to meet his wife Mamta, who was arriving on a train. She died in the crush.

“I met her at the platform and we were walking on the footbridge overhead when she was trapped in the crush. She died in front of my eyes. I will live my life with the guilt of not saving her,” he says.

“We were on the stairs, suddenly we felt a push from behind. We fell, along with many others, and were trapped under bodies. I was barely breathing,” said Seema, whose sister-in law Pinky Devi died on the staircase.

Usha Devi, who was travelling to the eastern state of Bihar for her nephew’s wedding, said chaos erupted the moment she reached the platform.

“Many people fell. Everywhere, there were scattered belongings, food items and clothes. I was on the verge of fainting. So many people were collapsing. The crowd was so dense that we couldn’t board our train.”

Umesh Giri’s wife Shilam Devi was among the victims.

“The crowd became uncontrollable,” he told BBC Hindi while waiting outside the mortuary at Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College.

“I saw several bodies already lying there. People were colliding with each other, and others started falling over them,” said Mr Giri, who was also injured.

He added that help took time to arrive and that he pleaded with officers for help.

Senior police and railway officials at the scene did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Most of the victims were taken to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in New Delhi, where police and paramilitary forces were deployed, and railway authorities had set up a help desk to assist families. Journalists were not allowed to enter the hospital on Saturday.

Relatives of victims shared their grief with reporters waiting outside, while also expressing anger at the facilities in the hospital.

“Multiple people were crammed onto a single bed,” alleged Shobha, the sister-in-law of Shilam Devi.

Others coming out of the hospital also confirmed this. Hospital authorities did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

At Lady Hardinge Hospital, the grieving family of Riya, 7, completed the paperwork so they could receive her body.

“No child deserves to die like this”, her uncle Vivek said, wiping away tears.

The UK and US have a “mutual interest” in negotiating an exemption for the UK from President Donald Trump’s planned export tariffs on steel, the business secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the impact of the 25% tariffs which could come into force in March “would be negative for ourselves, it would be negative for the US as well”.

He said the UK was in a different trading position to other nations and could offer “very specialised” steel and aluminium exports the US needs, such as Navy submarine casings that are made in Sheffield while tariffs would push up costs for US taxpayers.

Reynolds’ comments on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme came after the government promised up to £2.5bn in support for the UK steel industry.

President Trump has said the tariffs would be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”.

However, Reynolds told the BBC he has had “some very constructive conversations with key people in the Trump administration recognising our relationship is different”, including the special envoy to the UK, Mark Burnett, and the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hasssett.

He told the programme he thought there was a basis for “constructive engagement” between the UK and US but “I’m not saying it’s easy”.

He added: “I appreciate they have a mandate for changing how they approach the issues of trade, but we have got a different argument, a different story to tell, to the EU or to China in relation to our trading relationships,” he said.

Reynolds was also asked about 2,000 jobs under threat at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, where there is a plan to close blast furnaces.

While he said he would expect some guarantees on jobs if the government was investing in the industry, he accepted that there would be a “reduction in head count” with the introduction of new technologies.

As the government committed to provide up to £2.5bn support, it also launched a consultation on the Plan for Steel to look at long-term issues facing the industry.

The government’s Plan for Steel will include measures that seek to bring down the cost of production and encourage the use of domestic steel in infrastructure projects.

Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on all steel imports from 12 March is something the UK sector fears would cost it millions in trade.

Both countries report trade surpluses with each other owing to measurement differences, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics. Trump had previously said tariffs would target countries that the US run a deficit with.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the “uncertainty” the steel industry faced due to US tariffs was something the government “has been entirely silent on when instead they should be talking to the US, our closest trading partner”.

The plan will address issues that have been “holding the industry back for too long”, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said.

These include:

• Identifying opportunities to expand steel production
• Encouraging the use of UK-made steel in public infrastructure projects
• Improving scrap processing facilities
• Investing in electric arc furnaces, which are less energy-intensive than blast furnaces and take out the need for high carbon-emitting coke

The consultation will also examine electricity costs for steel companies “to make the UK competitive globally”, and how to protect the sector from unfair trading practices abroad, such as cheap imports flooding the market, the DBT added.

However it did not make a firm commitment to reduce energy bills in launching its plan.

The government has already said it would not retaliate immediately to the tariffs announced by Trump.

UK Steel, which represents the industry, has said the tariffs would be a “devastating blow” that would damage the sector’s £400m-a-year contribution to UK-US trade.

The UK is not a big supplier of steel to the US, with the country accounting for about 10% of British steel exports.

But there are concerns within the industry the tariffs might not just hinder exports to the US, but also lead to excess steel being “dumped” in the UK.

This could occur if other countries no longer exporting to the US decide to offload steel at cheaper prices, which could potentially lead to UK steelmaking businesses being undercut.

Financial support could benefit Scotland and areas such as Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Redcar in North Yorkshire “which have a strong history of steel production”, the DBT said.

Help will be available through the National Wealth Fund, which partners the government with the private sector and local authorities to finance infrastructure and other projects.

The DBT said it was “wasting no time” supporting UK steel, pointing to the government’s backing of expanding Heathrow Airport, which it said would require 400,000 tonnes of steel.

The UK steel industry has faced heavy job losses in recent years.

Tata Steel said it was replacing traditional blast furnaces with an electric arc furnace at its largest UK site in Port Talbot, Wales. Traditional steelmaking at the site ceased in September, resulting in 2,800 job cuts.

British Steel announced in 2023 it would close blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, and unveiled plans to roll out an electric arc furnace, which requires fewer workers to keep it going, with 2,000 jobs under threat.

The GMB union said the government’s plan to support the “beleaguered” steel industry provided “desperately needed” funding after “years of dithering”.

“As the world becomes more volatile, primary domestic steel making capacity is vital for both our economy and domestic security,” the union’s national secretary Andy Prendergast added.

Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, said the government’s commitment to the industry was “both vital and welcome”.

Information gathered in the consultation will be used to help form a “steel strategy”, to be launched in the spring.

Stace added a robust strategy “has the power to reverse the sector’s decline, particularly as we face increasing competition from imports benefiting from more favourable business conditions”.

Griffiths said he looked forward to seeing a detailed plan, but added “a clear part must be steps to reduce the cost of energy which is placing an intolerable strain on UK steel”.

The Liberal Democrats have said the government urgently needs to prepare for retaliatory tariff. The party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the UK steel industry was being left “dangerously exposed to Donald Trump and the devastating damage his tariffs could do”.