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A dole cheat from Wolverhampton has escaped jail for his part in a sophisticated £80,000 benefits scam – after being described by a judge as “capable of earning a good living”.

An ice-cream man who masterminded a £90million cannabis smuggling ring told a court he thought that he would never be caught or have to pay back a penny of his ill-gotten gains.

A £1 million menagerie of monkeys, meerkats and micro pigs has been created in Wolverhampton.

Up to 80 people have been evacuated from their homes after a “severe” fire broke out overnight at a recycling plant in Walsall.

The UK economy is now “bumping along the bottom” and may even start to strengthen later this year, according to the deputy governor of the Bank of England.

A rare Sunbeam car built in the Black Country, which was found abandoned in an orchard in Australia,has sold for £40,000 at auction.

A car boot sale raid near Stafford has resulted in the seizure of more than 10,000 counterfeit discs, including the new Harry Potter film, the Half Blood Prince.

A pedigree puppy was found tied to railings near a canal towpath in a South Staffordshire village.

Hundreds of feet above the ground, workmen have a painstaking task on their hands. But thanks to their skills – and a head for heights – a giant landmark in southern Staffordshire is slowly disappearing.

A drive to tackle teenage knife crime in the West Midlands has not seen a reduction in the number of robberies at knife-point, figures reveal today.