Cable / copper / metal theft - ongoing problems on the railways and elsewhere

[whole diary]

[willc]

Perhaps you might care to do a little basic research before berating the police and courts.

BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) take it extremely seriously and the courts are cottoning on too. In the past five weeks or so, the leader of a gang of cable thieves has got four-and-a-half years (most of the rest got four years each), there have been arrests, people charged, visits to scrap dealers, reward offers, etc. They also arrested 15 people in South Wales at the start of March. Look at the press releases on the BTP website to see how seriously they take the issue and for details of the court case in the East Midlands.

[ChrisB]

And prior to that?

It is true that they were very slow out of their blocks on this....

[Electric train]

Hmmm - I hope he gets locked up too. A strong message needs sending to these thieves.

Yes, and made to pay for the damage as well !
IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) cable theft is not taken seriously enough by either the police or the courts.
Apart from the costs that these thefts impose on the railway, persistant theft has been used as an argument against more electrification.

And slightly O/T, a growing number of power cuts are caused by cable theft in rural areas.

Having been involved with BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) when dealing with the aftermath of cable thefts (where 1 thief lost his life another badly burnt) BTP are thorougher with their investigation, indeed they are the only Police Force that maintain a National data base of these thefts which enables them to profile the offences and draw on intelligence across a wide area.

Remember BTP is a very small Police Force

These metal thieves are threatening all of our lives, they steal the earthing from electrical substations which can result is lethal voltages on the system that supply our homes and work places.

[broadgage]

Perhaps you might care to do a little basic research before berating the police and courts.

BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) take it extremely seriously and the courts are cottoning on too. In the past five weeks or so, the leader of a gang of cable thieves has got four-and-a-half years (most of the rest got four years each), there have been arrests, people charged, visits to scrap dealers, reward offers, etc. They also arrested 15 people in South Wales at the start of March. Look at the press releases on the BTP website to see how seriously they take the issue and for details of the court case in the East Midlands.

Perhaps it is now being taken more seriously, but in the recent past I have read of cable thieves receiving modest fines, community service orders, suspended sentences and other very slight punishments.
Prison sentences of 4 years should be a detterent, though presumably this is not the norm, or cable theft would be less popular.

[Electric train]

Prison sentences of 4 years should be a detterent, though presumably this is not the norm, or cable theft would be less popular.

These thieves work on a risk verse consequences the risk being caught, they believe that in the middle of the night at a remote location there is little chance of being caught; hence in some recent cases BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) working with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and LU have been presenting evidence in court that even though the "scrap value" is only tens or a few hundreds of pounds the damage caused is tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, in a couple of cases the Judges have accepted argument put of the risk to railway employees and the traveling public.

[willc]

Perhaps you might care to do a little basic research before berating the police and courts.

BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) take it extremely seriously and the courts are cottoning on too. In the past five weeks or so, the leader of a gang of cable thieves has got four-and-a-half years (most of the rest got four years each), there have been arrests, people charged, visits to scrap dealers, reward offers, etc. They also arrested 15 people in South Wales at the start of March. Look at the press releases on the BTP website to see how seriously they take the issue and for details of the court case in the East Midlands.

Perhaps it is now being taken more seriously, but in the recent past I have read of cable thieves receiving modest fines, community service orders, suspended sentences and other very slight punishments.
Prison sentences of 4 years should be a detterent, though presumably this is not the norm, or cable theft would be less popular.

'Perhaps now'? Your IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) seemed very much directed at the present - and was written in the present tense. And the reason cable theft is so popular is nothing to do with anything BTP did/are doing or sentencing policy in courts, it is because of China's insatiable appetite for copper and the lack of scruples of some scrap dealers about where material comes from. This is an international problem - just put cable theft in a news search on Google and you will see stories from all over the world pop up.

As electric train says the message is getting through to judges, thanks to the efforts of BTP and Network Rail to make clear the massive disruption that can be caused, even if the actual quantity of metal stolen is small.

[Electric train]

The incident I was dealing with which cost 1 thief his life and another to get quite badly burnt, they part of a gang of 4, the 2 uninjured managed to sell their contraband before being arrested however the metal was recovered from a scrap dealer who had given the thieves ^480 for it, to these thieves even ^120 each would have paid for their drugs for the week, the cost to NR^» (Network Rail - home page)  has been in the order of ^60,000 to repair the damage they caused.

Theft of substation earthing is a weekly occurrence and now the lighter evenings are here it likely to be a daily occurrence it not only impacts on the operational safety of the system it also impacts on renewals projects because staff or contractors cannot operate equipment at substation where earthing has been stolen until it has been repaired all of which causes contractual delays which costs money.

There will be more serious injuries and even deaths while this crime wave persists.  There are a number of techniques being deployed to reduce the value of the metal used as well as covert and overt security measures to protect cables.

[ChrisB]

Indeed there are - but I've little sympathy for those killed or burnt. They know the risks.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) press release:

A thief who caused nearly 7,000 minutes of delay to trains in Warwickshire and cost Network Rail ^305,000 in compensation to train operators, has been sent to prison for 20 months, following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.

Wayne Stephen Griffin, 26, of Augusta Place, Leamington, pleaded guilty to four offences of cable theft carried out between 6 and 29 July 2010 and was sentenced at Leamington Spa Crown Court today, Friday 27 May 2011.

In addition to the delays and financial penalties incurred by the rail network, Griffin^s offences caused 43 trains to be cancelled, causing massive inconvenience to thousands of passengers.

Griffin first struck in Lapworth on Tuesday 6 July 2010 when he stole 20 metres of signalling cable. Two days later he stole a further 40 metres of cable from the railway at Gibbet Hill.

On Wednesday 21 July 2010, 50 metres of cable was stolen in Brinklow before Griffin returned to Lapworth on Thursday 29 July and stole a further 20 metres of power cable from the railway.

Following a painstaking investigation by BTP officers, a suspect vehicle was seen at a petrol station on the A4177 at Hatton at around 5.30am on 29 July 2010 by Warwickshire Police officers.

The car was searched and a large quantity of cable was found in the boot along with a quantity of tools.

Some of the cable had been stripped of its outer casing to reveal its copper core. The vehicle was seized, along with the tools which were suspected of having been used to cut the cable, a SatNav and mobile phones.

Both Griffin, who was the passenger in the car, and the driver, Richard Stojsavljevic, were arrested by the Warwickshire Police officers on suspicion of cable theft and handed over to BTP officers.

Enquiries by BTP officers linked both Stojsavljevic^s vehicle and Griffin to a number of cable thefts. The vehicle and its occupants were also seen visiting a number of scrap metal dealers where quantities of cable were deposited.

When interviewed, Griffin admitted to four counts of theft. At today's hearing, he was jailed for 20 months for each of the four counts, to run concurrently.

Stojsavljevic, 25, of Vauxhall Close, Coventry, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and was dealt with by the courts on 15 December 2010. He was given a two-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay ^85 towards prosecution costs.

Griffin^s sentencing comes just days after Network Rail released figures showing there had been 58 cable theft incidents across the West Midlands in the last financial year which cost the company ^1.5m in compensation.

Speaking after today's hearing, Jo Kaye, Network Rail route director, said: ^A great deal of effort by our people and British Transport Police resulted in Griffin being brought to court. Criminals like him disrupt the lives of thousands of people and result in huge amounts of money being wasted that could otherwise be used to improve the railway. I hope this sentence sends a clear message to all would-be thieves about the consequences of being caught.^

Detective Inspector Robin Conway, who led the investigation for BTP, said: ^While many criminals see cable theft as a victimless crime, the reality is that it is an attack on communities and the very infrastructure that keeps the country operating. Without vital rail services, many people cannot go about their daily business which means work hours are lost, appointments are missed and important visits ^ perhaps to hospitals or loved ones ^ cannot be made.^

Anyone with information about cable theft should contact British Transport Police or Crimestoppers where they can report the crime anonymously and could receive up to ^1,000 reward if their information leads to a conviction.

[Electric train]

Sentence far too short

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

The article has the following:

The vehicle and its occupants were also seen visiting a number of scrap metal dealers where quantities of cable were deposited.

I hope the scrap metal dealers have been charged with receiving stolen property. It would be interesting to know.

[ChrisB]

You couldn't prove that they knew it was stolen.....only recently have they started using marked cable....

[broadgage]

This report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-13678266
Notes the serious burns received by a thief, note however that only a suspended sentence was imposed, not an actual prison term.

Suspended sentences and community service orders seem to be the norm, with actual prison terms the exception.

[ChrisB]

Unfortunately, only serial reoffenders for theft generally get locked up....and this is no different to theft of anything else really.

[bobm]

While acknowledging it's a serious issue is there really 50,000 volts running through railway cables?  I thought the overhead was 25,000v. I know it's the amps that kill (after all a taser gun delivers 50,000v) but seems an awful lot of electricity.