An MP called on car insurance companies to properly investigate claims after it emerged a crash-for-cash con was sweeping the region.

More than 100 street parties are being planned across the region for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – and the details can be revealed today for the first time.

The £500,000 expansion of a 1,000-seater function hall in Oldbury, which will create at least 10 new jobs, has been passed by planning chiefs.

A new £15 million leisure centre will be built in the heart of Smethwick, bringing the town’s four existing centres under one roof and modernising facilities, Sandwell Council’s leader revealed today.

A church in the Black Country is still suffering the effects of metal theft – more than four years after it was raided.

Dozens of extra school places are being created in Staffordshire next year to cope with rising birth rates, education bosses revealed today.

Four ambulance bases in Wolverhampton will close, with their crews moved to nearby fire stations, it was announced today.

A teenage rioter, who threw bricks at police and tried to overturn a van which was later set on fire in West Bromwich, was today starting a 32-month sentence at a young offenders’ institution.

A Ferrari-driving Staffordshire property developer was facing jail today after being convicted of possessing thousands of child pornography pictures.

A victim of serial fraudster Bill Williams has vowed to donate any money she gets back to the three-year-old daughter of a murdered Wolverhampton businessman, whose money he also took.