Thames Water take on ex-detectives to tackle pipe theft

Thames Water has hired a former police detective to tackle theft from pipes
Benedict Moore-Bridger24 January 2018
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Thames Water has hired former police detectives to patrol its network after “skyrocketing” thefts from pipes.

The squad aims to quell a “dramatic crime spike” caused by thieves connecting to and stealing from Britain’s biggest water company.

Thames has faced criticism for its poor performance on reducing leakage. Today it reported that over the past six years there has been a 20-fold increase in “unauthorised connections”, from 33 in 2011 to 734 last year.

The investigators are led by former Surrey police detective Stuart Orchard, who said: “We’re not out to get people, but it’s against the law to connect to our network and steal our drinking water. Thousands of litres are lost every day.

To help protect supplies for future generations it’s vitally important we stop the people doing this.”

Thames Water said there had been “a spike in illegal connections. It is a growing problem. Like any crime, you need evidence to take it to court. Reducing leakage is a top priority and we have significantly increased investment this year. This is just one of the ways.”

Currently, any unaccounted-for water is classed as leakage in end-of-year performance tables, which Thames Water is desperately trying to improve.

Last month, company Hydro Cleansing admitted 18 offences in Croydon and Reading under the Water Industry Act 1991 and was to told to pay fines and costs of almost £15,000.

In September the team took Kilgannon Street Care to court after it was repeatedly seen connecting an unlicensed standpipe to a fire hydrant in Battersea and using thousands of litres to clean the streets.

Its director admitted 12 offences and was ordered to pay more than £5,000 in fines and costs.

Investigator Claire Rumens, formerly of Kent CID, said: “People are stealing water. If we’re notified of an illegal connection we will disconnect the supply where possible and work with them to put things right. However, if they continue to abuse the network we have power to prosecute, and we will.”

The team, which began as one person in 2014, is now eight-strong.

Thames currently loses 26 per cent of the water it produces.

Last summer Ofwat fined it a record £8.55 million after it lost 677 million litres a day in 2016/17, up five per cent on the year before. Enough was wasted each day to fill 270 Olympic swimming pools.

In its annual report last year Thames said that over the next decade it expects to save 23.5 million litres of stolen water — though that is just 3.5 per cent of its total daily loss.

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