A security company has hailed what it’s calling the largest prosecution to date involving lead theft from churches, since the law was changed in 2012 to recognise the aggravating factor of criminal damage to heritage assets.
Operation Dastardly, led by Lincolnshire Police, led to three men charged with 47 church lead theft offences across ten counties. In total the three caused over £1.25m in damage before being arrested after fleeing the scene of a theft in progress from St Botolph’s Church in Walcott, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire. A church warden alerted police and followed the suspects’ car, leading to officers intercepting the vehicle and finding 12 sheets of lead in the back. It was at this point that SmartWater proved pivotal in linking the stolen property back to the scene of another of their crimes.
SmartWater is a traceable liquid that is applied to items of value to deter theft – such as copper cable on the railways and by utilities – and support police in identifying stolen property. Each bottle is uniquely formulated and comprises a forensic identifier whose presence is invisible except under an ultra-violet light. This ensures items can categorically be tied back to the location from which they were taken.
Mark Kubis-Law, Manager of Commercial Operations at DeterTech, the new company name for Smartwater, said: “A frustration for investigators is to know property has been stolen without knowing where from, and whether they’ll be able to prove it in court. We analysed the recovered material in our laboratory and were quickly able to link it back to another church in the area that had also suffered a theft that very same night.”
An investigation that followed was able to tie the group to 47 offences across the country through a combination of forensic marking, mobile phone cell site evidence, mobile phone downloads, ANPR evidence, and records of payments from the scrap yard where they sold the lead.
Gary Higgins, Director of Commercial Operations at DeterTech, added: “With a 100 per cent conviction rate in contested court cases, criminals rightfully fear SmartWater and its ability to put them behind bars. This case should serve as a reminder to the criminal fraternity that areas ‘Protected by SmartWater’ are no-go zones.”
Visit www.detertech.com.
Photo courtesy of DeterTech: how lead was stripped from the roof of one of the churches.
See also the April print edition of Professional Security Magazine.
