June saw Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell slapped around the face with a fish and more than £1 million of cocaine removed from the streets. And there was the small matter of an Olympic Torch. Here is our next installment of the 2012 Review of the Year.
JUNE 1: A quick-thinking tanker driver averted a potential disaster after yobs threw a tyre from a bridge to the road below. It was the action taken by Gary Markham, which he says prevented his 39,000-litre tanker – full of fuel – from crashing and exploding under the railway bridge which runs across Peaks Parkway.
JUNE 4: We reported how a downpour washed out the area's Diamond Jubilee events, but that spirits remained high and North East Lincolnshire celebrated like royalty.
JUNE 5: A stone plaque and fountain commemorating a royal visit that went missing 12 years ago were discovered in the basement of a block of high-rise flats. The Fishermen's Mission recovered the artefacts from Tennyson House. The foundational stone was laid by Princess Mary in 1925, when she opened the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen in Riby Square. The fountain was erected there in memory of Mrs O T Olsen, the then local honorary secretary of the mission.
JUNE 7: Friends of disabled pensioner Eddie Hindle were "sickened" after his home was burgled just days after he died. The 74-year-old retired chief ship's engineer – who was the victim of a brutal assault two years ago by thieves – died following a short illness. Electrical equipment and food were stolen.
JUNE 8: Bank staff prevented a woman from being conned out of £6,500 to clear "toxic waste" from her garden. The canny counter staff at Nationwide in Grimsby's Victoria Street alerted North East Lincolnshire Trading Standards officers after the elderly woman arrived to draw out the large amount of cash. When the conmen returned to collect the money, they found Humberside Police waiting for them and were arrested.
JUNE 9: MORE than £1 million worth of cocaine was seized from a ship at Immingham Docks. The 20kg haul of drugs was found hidden in one of the vessel's tanks.
JUNE 12: He's the Codfather! Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell showed his fun side when he agreed to be slapped round the face with a 5kg cod for St Andrew's Hospice. It was all part of the publicity for the hospice's Big Fish Lottery, which helps raise much-needed funds for the Grimsby facility.
JUNE 14: A retired ambulance driver who was punished for driving through a red light as he took a pregnant woman to hospital told how he would do it again. Christopher Edwards said he was shocked that the matter had been taken to court – and that magistrates had given him three penalty points – given the circumstances. The mother-to-be, the niece of a neighbour, needed help after loosing blood.
JUNE 15: Police uncovered a cannabis factory containing 320 plants at a home in St Nicholas Drive, Wybers Wood. The upper floor had been transformed into five growing areas.
JUNE 16: More than £30,000 was donated to good causes in memory of Grimsby fishing industry legend John Ross MBE. The latest batch of cheques from the John Ross MBE Community Trust Fund saw £7,000 donated in one day to local charities, and the donations continued throughout the year.
JUNE 19: A babysitter accused of murdering his girlfriend's six-month-old baby, Ethan Hopson, shook and violently hit the tot because he was angry at being disturbed while texting, a court heard. Following his trial, Jason Redgrave was later jailed for eight years after being found guilty of manslaughter, in December 2011.
JUNE 20: A Cleethorpes clearance firm was ordered to pay £6,000 after illegally dumping a whole kitchen at the side of the road.
JUNE 25: The Armed Forces Weekend left veterans "flooded with pride" as thousands lined the streets to show support for our heroes past and present.
JUNE 27: The Olympic Torch lit up Grimsby's Dock Tower as the borough had its moment to shine during the Olympic Torch Relay. Proud torchbearers carried the flame through the area on a route which took two days to complete.
JUNE 30: Almost five years to the day that North East Lincolnshire was flooded by torrential rainfall, it happened again. Heavy storms caused chaos as drainage systems became overwhelmed. Properties and classrooms were flooded and roads became submerged.
