Ben Ando

Ben Ando: Concorde, Eurostar and cartoons

Ben joined Breakfast at the beginning of 2005 - in 2007 became the BBC's crime correspondent.

Ben came to the BBC after seven years at Five News:

Prior to working at the BBC, and at Five, I worked as a reporter with ITN on ITV News.

I've also worked as a reporter and newsreader on Independent Radio News (IRN) providing bulletins and reports for the UK's network of Independent Local Radio stations.

During my career I have covered many major stories; travelling to New York to cover the 9-11 attacks, working with the British Army in Kosovo and reporting from London and Paris on the death and funeral of the Princess of Wales.

Among my own personal highlights - travelling on Concorde to celebrate the jet's 30th anniversary (and, sadly, covering its withdrawal from active service) and being on the Eurostar when it became the fastest train ever to run in Britain, clocking 207mph on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

I nearly became a professional cartoonist, and while at Five News I was occasionally called on to produce cartoons to illustrate stories where we lacked "proper" pictures - most recently a jokey rendition of John Prescott's rescuing a canoeist in the Lake District.

I am married with two young daughters and I live in Cambridgeshire. When I'm not working - or sleeping - I enjoy football, cycling and drawing.

In 2007, Ben became the BBC's crime correspondent

Since his appointment, Ben's reported on the discovery of the bodies of two teenage girls at a house in Margate formerly belonging to odd-job man Peter Tobin, and carried out exclusive interviews with UK victims of "internal trafficking."

On a lighter note, he also interviewed the mystery policewoman who posts online as "PC Bloggs - Policewoman," lifting he lid on what it's really like to be a police officer in modern Britain.