Nine arrested as Met raid east London scrapyard in metal theft crackdown

 
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Mark Blunden @_MarkBlunden14 December 2012
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A gang suspected of using a stolen BT van and disguising themselves as workmen to steal valuable copper cables from beneath London’s streets has been smashed by police.

Nine people - including two alleged British Telecom insiders - were arrested in raids.

The Standard witnessed yesterday’s operation targeting an east London scrapyard allegedly used as cover to convert the copper cable for sale.

One tonne of copper cable has a black market value of between £6,000 and £10,000 and police said the gang were stealing up to three tonnes per “job”.

Each time they allegedly stole up to 400 metres of phone and internet cables.

Officers trailed the gang for six months before swooping yesterday.

The men allegedly used a stolen BT Openreach vehicle and wore high visibility uniforms.

They set up traffic cones around manholes and threaded cable into the van using a winch to load several tonnes a time.

Four men and a woman were arrested at homes in east London in dawn raids and another two men at the scrapyard.

Detectives also arrested two BT employees, who they suspected of leaking inside information on sites that could be easy targets, at their homes in Essex and Hertfordshire.

The BT Openreach van and winch was seized at an Essex business park packed with about two tonnes of cables cut into strips, which police suspected of being destined for the scrapyard to convert for sale.

To make them easier to transport, police said the cables are often ground down in a giant shredder after their “armoured” rubber sheaths are melted off by setting them on fire in skips.

Officers working under Operation Banfield have trailed the gang since the summer as they used middlemen to exchange cable for cash.

About 30 officers from the London Crime Squad, Territorial Support Group and British Transport Police carried out yesterday’s raids.

Detective Inspector John Cracknell, from the London Crime Squad, said: “These men are suspected of having made tens of thousands of pounds worth of profit from the illegal trade in stolen metal, helped considerably by the sensitive information we believe that the BT employees illegally passed on.”

Met figures show there are currently between 400 and 600 metal thefts every month, not including cable stolen from rail lines.

Acting Inspector James Coomber, of Operation Ferrous, said cable thefts in the capital cause widespread phone and internet disruption to homes, businesses and hospitals.

He added that the practice was “highly organised” with containers full of stolen copper were often sent to China, India and Israel.

New laws have made it illegal for cash transactions at scrapyards and recycling facilities.

Six men and one woman aged 25 to 35 years old were arrested yesterday for conspiracy to steal, and two were arrested for handling stolen goods.

They were being questioned at east London police stations.

A BT spokesman said: “BT has worked closely with the London Metropolitan Police, with our Metal Theft Taskforce providing intelligence to assist with the police’s operation.

“BT will not tolerate any level of criminal behaviour, we will continue to work with police and do everything possible to catch cable theft criminals.”

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