Police forces across Britain came together on Friday, October 28, to tackle what the Association of Chief Police Officers say is the increasing problem of thieves targeting metal and cable….
Metal thieves have caused misery for thousands of people, says ACPO, whether through stolen lead from roofs, stolen railway cable resulting in delays and cancellations or stolen power cable causing widespread power loss.
ACPO lead on metal theft, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Crowther, said: โรรบMetal theft in any form is a blight on society and sadly has been having a greater and greater impact on communities in re cent months.
โรรบThe rail way has experienced significant is sues for some time, but through out 2011 we have seen criminals diversifying and targeting metal from other areas, including power cables, utilities pipework, telecommunications cabling, residential properties, businesses and catalytic converters from vehicles. All affected industries are working together to tackle the problem, which is now a significant threat to the UK infrastructure.
โรรบA key part of our strategy is to choke off the market for stolen metal. We are talking to the Government about stricter controls and legislative changes that will make life much more difficult for thieves and unscrupulous scrap metal dealers. There are still many criminals pre pared to take risks to steal metal.โรรน Road side checks were carried out to target those using the road network to transport stolen material.
DCC Crowther added: โรรบOur extensive work with scrap metal recyclers โรรฌ working with the British Metals Re cycling Association to bring in a voluntary code of con duct, educating dealers about the methods used by thieves and showing dealers what stolen metal could look like โรรฌ is making life more difficult for thieves, but thereโรรดs more we need to do.
โรรบThieves are still operating and a minority of metal re cyclers knowingly operate out side the law. We in tend to use all legal means โรรฌ as well as powers avail able to partner agencies โรรฌ to clamp down on this illegal trade and bring the criminals involved to justice.โรรน
