TalkTalk and its Tiscali UK subsidiary have been fined £3m for incorrectly billing more than 65,000 customers for services they had not received.

The largest fine regulator Ofcom has given to a telecoms firm, it follows an investigation into the two businesses that started in July 2010 as a result of more than 1,000 complaints.

Ofcom said the fine reflected “the seriousness” of their actions.

TalkTalk said it was “disappointed at the scale of the fine”.

The company, which bought Tiscali UK in 2009, blamed the billing errors on the amalgamation of the Tiscali UK business.

It has since paid more than £2.5m in refunds and goodwill payments to affected customers.

As a result of this action, and other measures by TalkTalk to rectify the problems, Ofcom said the fine was less than otherwise might have been the case.

In its ruling, Ofcom said TalkTalk and Tiscali UK wrongly issued bills to 62,000 customers, in particular those who had closed accounts, between 1 January and 1 November 2010.

Ofcom said it contacted both businesses in November 2010, setting them a deadline of 2 December 2010 to “take steps to sort out their billing problems”.

However, while it said TalkTalk and Tiscali UK “did take some important steps to comply with the rules”, almost 3,000 more of their customers were still incorrectly billed between 2 December 2010 and 4 March 2011.

TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said: “Last year I recognised that we needed to invest in our systems, processes and customer services ­and we are making significant progress.

“Ofcom receives three times fewer calls about TalkTalk than they did at the height of the Tiscali integration, and our five million customers are more loyal and more satisfied than they were 12 months ago.”

In April this year, Ofcom said that TalkTalk was the most complained about telecoms firm for landline and broadband services.

TalkTalk phased out the Tiscali UK brand in 2010, switching users to services offered under its own name.

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The death of a man decapitated by a mental health patient could have been stopped had there not been a catalogue of lost opportunities, an inquiry says.

Garnet Hooper, who had schizophrenia, attacked Graham Rayner, 64, of Taverham, Norfolk, with an axe on 24 May 2006.

The inquiry found Hooper had been without medication for a month.

As he had been violent before, “appropriate” action was needed when he stopped taking medication, it added.

Hooper, who was not named in the independent report, killed Mr Rayner then put his headless body in the boot of a car and drove off. The vehicle was later stopped by police on the A11 in Suffolk.

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French actor Gerard Depardieu has been removed from a flight bound for Dublin.

The 62-year-old, star of Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card, was on a flight from Paris when he urinated in front of fellow passengers.

The plane was still on the ground but was preparing for take-off when Mr Depardieu asked to use the lavatory.

When staff told him to stay in his seat, it is understood he stood in the aisle of the plane and urinated into a bottle.

A passenger on the CityJet plane contacted a French radio station on Wednesday and claimed the movie star had also urinated on the aisle.

The traveller claimed Mr Depardieu stood up minutes before take-off and declared in a loud voice: “Je veux pisser. Je veux pisser.”

Following the incident, he said it was not alcohol related and was so desperate to use the facilities as he had drunk a litre bottle of water before boarding.

Delay

The star offered to clean up any mess, but the aircraft taxied back to the terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport and Mr Depardieu was removed from the flight.

He was flying to Ireland with Cityjet to film Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia.

Cityjet confirmed the plane had been delayed and it took off later than scheduled.

In a statement the airline, a subsidiary of Air France, said: “Flight AF5010, which was due to depart at 1845 from Paris to Dublin, was delayed due to an incident on board involving a passenger who refused to remain in his seat as the aircraft was taxiing on the runway.

“The captain returned the aircraft to stand where the passenger was offloaded.”

Mr Depardieu’s agent said he did not want to comment publicly on the incident.

He had been expected in Ireland to join more than 300 cast and crew for filming on the 50m euros film at several locations including the Burren, County Clare, Listoke Gardens in County Louth and in Wicklow.

Filming on part four of the Gaul’s exploits began on Tuesday and is due to continue for the next four weeks.

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A 14-year-old boy has been found stabbed to death in a park in north London.

Officers found Leroy James in Ponders End Recreation Ground in Enfield after being called there at about 17:30 BST on Wednesday.

Leroy, from Edmonton, was dead when officers arrived at the scene. He had suffered a stab wound, police said.

A post-mortem examination will be held later at Haringey mortuary. No arrests have been made.

Leroy is the eighth teenager to be stabbed to death in London this year.

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Many universities will have to reduce tuition fees within two years to avoid losing students, the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) predicts.

Hepi says fees of £9,000 from 2012 will lead to a polarised sector, where only a few universities will find such fees viable and others will charge £7,500.

It says letting universities recruit unlimited AAB+ grade students will set up an “arms race” for the privileged.

Ministers say the reforms will ensure students get “good value for money”.

The White Paper for higher education, published in June, raised the tuition fee cap for English universities from just over £3,000 to £9,000 from autumn 2012.

Ministers expected the £9,000-a-year fee to be the exception, anticipating most to charge around £7,500, but the majority of universities in England and Wales have outlined their plans to charge the top fee.

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A US court has refused to allow music producer Phil Spector to appeal against his 2009 murder conviction.

The 71-year-old was jailed for 19 years for shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his California home in 2003.

His lawyers claim he was not given a fair trial because Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler prejudiced the case.

In May an appeals court refused to consider the issue, saying there had been enough evidence to convict him.

Lawyers for Spector said the judge had turned himself into a witness by allowing prosecutors to use pictures of him in closing arguments.

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Apple shares have fallen in New York following the resignation of chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs.

In early trading, the shares were down 2.5% before recovering slightly to stand 1.5% down at $370.51.

Mr Jobs, who has been on medical leave since 17 January, will stay on as Apple chairman. The new boss will be Tim Cook, formerly chief operating officer.

Analysts suggested that the share price had not fallen further as investors had confidence in Mr Cook and his team.

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Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album has become the biggest-selling album in the UK in the 21st Century, the Official Charts Company (OCC) has revealed.

It said her 2006 second album had this week overtaken sales of James Blunt’s 2005 work Back to Bedlam.

It had sold 3.26 million copies compared with Blunt’s 3.25 million, the OCC said on Thursday.

Winehouse’s Back to Black shot back to the top of the charts for three weeks following her death on 23 July.

Dido’s No Angel – released in the UK in February 2001 – is the third best-selling album of the century with sales of 3.07 million.

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