Thousands raised for crash victim, woman scammed on Facebook and bust of dealer 'JetHawk'

Good morning, these are the latest ECHO headlines today.

Thousands raised for family of 22 year old who died in tunnel crash

Almost £29,000 has been raised for the family of the 22-year-old who died in a crash in the Queensway Tunnel.

Paige Rice from the West Midlands died after a crash in the early hours of Sunday after coming to Liverpool to visit her boyfriend.

Her mum, Clare, said she was "broken" following the death of her "beautiful baby" and said Paige had a "heart of gold".

Two men were also injured in the crash and police confirmed to the ECHO "the driver of the Audi is still in a very critical condition and the taxi driver is in a serious condition but this is not life threatening".

Find the GoFundMe for Paige's family here.

Read the fully story and her mum's tribute here.

Woman 'gutted' after scammers 'bought' Facebook Marketplace items using fake banking app

A woman who was the victim of a new Facebook scam which caused her to lose £130 has warned others to 'be careful'.

Merseyside Police confirmed it is investigating a fraud allegation in St Helens after two women were targeted by scammers over the weekend.

The reported incidents follow an identical theme that involves the 'sisters of a buyer' arriving at the seller’s home to purchase a Facebook Marketplace item and then uses a ‘fake’ banking account to make payment.

Lucy Barnes, who is from St Helens, was selling a Nintendo Switch Lite for £130 on Facebook Marketplace and was approached by a Facebook account requesting to come and collect the item the following day.

Read the full story here.

'Passport' messages exposed bonus EncroChat bust of dealer 'JetHawk'

An EncroChat drug dealer was busted when specialist detectives unravelled a network of amphetamine suppliers and stumbled across his details.

The rumbling of Anthony Lenehan was a bonus case for an undercover team set up to target a gang that moved almost £500,000 of the Class B drug.

One of the key figures in that plot was Ricardo Hughes - whose messages allowed officers to expose Lenehan as the criminal behind the nickname JetHawk.

Hughes and his associates were on the radar of the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit in early 2020, months before the landmark EncroChat hack that prised open the private chats of some of the European underworld's biggest figures.

Read the full story from our crime reporter Joe Thomas here.