AFTER successfully climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Nick Waites thought his epic ordeal was over – but within hours he found himself in the middle of a terrifying riot in Istanbul, in June 2013.

Nick Waites was one of 15 trekkers, including Sky Sport’s Jeff Stelling, to take on the challenge of scaling the world’s highest free-standing mountain to raise money for the Finlay Cooper Fund.

As a trustee of the Finlay Cooper Fund, set up in memory of the two-year-old son of former Middlesbrough player and new Hartlepool United boss Colin Cooper, Mr Waites described the Mount Kilimanjaro climb as an adventure of a lifetime and he has already raised more than £7,400.

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Although exhausted and mentally drained, soon after touching down at Heathrow airport, the accountant – who owns CP Waites chartered accountancy practice in Darlington – was back up in the air again with a colleague to visit a client in Istanbul.

“We were in a taxi going to the hotel when we started seeing cars that had been burnt out and protesters wearing gas masks and holding pick axes and batons. It was quite frightening.

“There was nothing we could do, “ added the 51-yearold father of two. “We were just hoping that they were not going to turn on the car.

“At the hotel, tear gas came through the air-conditioning and our eyes started to water and our throats hurt.”

The locked-down hotel was metres away from Taksim Square, the scene of violent clashes earlier this month between protestors and the Turkish government over the treatment of environmental activists.

A devoted father flew nearly 7,000 miles on a mission to evacuate his family from Singapore to Australia as life-threatening air pollution hit record levels in June 2013.

With the island choking from smoke caused by illegal forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia, expat Dave Roberts asked his wife and two children to provide him with weather updates when he returned home to Middlesbrough to attend a family funeral.

Within days, hazardous levels of toxic fumes had skyrocketed and were deemed potentially life-threatening.

After hearing his wife, Francesca, had been confined to bed for two days with a migraine and children, Kari, 12, and Luke, ten, were suffering from sore throats and eyes, he was determined to get them to safety.

On June 22. 2013, he flew the 6,700 miles from Heathrow back to Singapore, before putting his wife and children on a 2,400-mile flight to Perth, Australia, where they will spend the next month with his sister-in-law.

“I am pleased that they are now out of danger, “ he said. “I was really concerned about their health, especially when I heard that all three of them weren’t well.”

The former chairman of the Cleveland Police Authority faced jail after being guilty of perverting the course of justice.

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In June 2013, Dave McLuckie, then 52, was found guilty by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court of persuading a friend to accept the points from a speeding fine on his behalf.

McLuckie, vice-chairman of the authority when he broke the speed limit in 2005, already had nine points on his licence and feared a ban for reaching 12 points would scupper his chances of getting the top job.

Sentencing was adjourned until July 15, but McLuckie, of Great Ayton, was told by Judge David Wood: “The likely outcome is a prison sentence.”