Afternoon Headlines | Call for more police on Karangahape Rd and severe winds continue to batter parts of New Zealand | Tuesday, December 30, 2025UK paramedic loses job after lying about family sickness to skip work on ChristmasA British emergency worker has been struck off for dishonesty, including falsely telling her bosses her sister was in intensive care so she could have Christmas Day off. Paramedic Natalie Twomey emailed her employer, the London Ambulance Service (LAS), on November 28, 2022, claiming her sister’s health had “deteriorated again” and she needed to travel out of town to be by her side. But the truth was uncovered when LAS staff noticed a Facebook post the same day showing her supposedly critically ill sister’s house decked out with Christmas decorations, the Independent reported. Metro also reported Twomey shared a Facebook memory of a previous trip to Mexico with her sister, captioned, “Eight days until this paradise again”. Twomey was removed from frontline duties in June 2023 after arriving at work smelling of alcohol, the Independent reported.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 30, 2025 12:53 UTC