The new multi-agency Waste and Metal Theft Taskforce (whose team includes experts from BT and a local authority’s environmental crime unit) is based in Bexley, one of the London Boroughs most severely affected by metal theft due to its high number of scrap metal yards.
This launch follows the conclusion of Operation Ferrous – the latest Met-wide operation to tackle the problem of metal theft. Objects targeted by thieves range from cables, drain covers, lift panels from housing estates and memorial plaques through to children’s playground slides, fire escape stairs and even materials at English Heritage buildings.
In the first two weeks of December officers across the Met carried out a total of 275 inspections and searches of scrap metal dealer yards, arrested 15 people for offences ranging from burglary to transporting waste metal illegally without a licence and seized 16 vehicles.
The conclusion of the operation on 14 December was timed to coincide with ACPO’s latest Day of Action to tackle metal theft nationally, which was led by British Transport Police. The Metropolitan Police Service carried out its first Operation Ferrous in late November, and another will follow in the near future.
Metal theft: not a victimless crime
Chief superintendent David Chinchen, the Met’s lead for Operation Ferrous, said: “Metal theft is not a victimless crime. It’s causing increasing misery to commuters and householders, and costing millions for the rail industry and local authorities.”
He continued: “Our latest operation aimed to identify, disrupt and deter those involved in this illegal trade, and acted as an important intelligence-gathering exercise for future operations so that we can target those evading the law – as well as those who supply them – even more effectively.”
Chinchen went on to state: “We are keen to work with legitimate scrap metal dealers, but those who aren’t can expect to see regular enforcement. These crimes are covered by a complex range of laws. A multi-pronged approach is essential in order to tackle it robustly and we’re already working closely with our partner agencies.”
In conclusion, Chinchen explained: “Our officers will employ a wide range of robust tactics and we plan to run regular operations to crack down on those seeking to profit from metal theft, and who end up disrupting other’s lives and putting their own at risk.”
Seizures made during Operation Ferrous
One of the scrap metal dealers inspected in Islington during Operation Ferrous was so deterred from accepting illegal metals that, when he was offered what he suspected was memorial plaque metal the day after his inspection, he immediately called the police to alert them.
In Waltham Forest, two men driving a trailer of suspected illegal metal into a scrapyard panicked when they saw police, the passenger jumped down and fled, while the driver u-turned and sped off. He was pursued by officers who discovered the vehicle had no insurance and is now in the process of being prosecuted.
Seizures made during Operation Ferrous ranged from lead found in an Ealing scrap metal yard, suspected of being stolen and currently being tested for Smartwater (a liquid which shows up under ultraviolet light denoting stolen goods) through to an illegal car breakers yard in Havering that was exporting waste to Africa.
In the London Borough of Bexley, results included finds of GB pound 16,000 worth of BT cable as well as copper earthing straps stolen from a National Grid sub-station.
The removal of earthing straps from electricity sub-stations can cause dangerously high sudden power surges and lead electronic equipment in nearby homes to explode.
In an extreme case in Castleford, West Yorkshire, theft from a sub-station caused an explosion which led to the sudden collapse of three nearby houses.
Confiscation of a gas-powered handgun
Officers in Bexley who raided the house of a metal theft suspect during Operation Ferrous confiscated a gas-powered handgun (airgun) and two ceremonial swords. In the back garden they found charred remains in an oil-drum suggesting evidence of cable burning – the process used by metal thieves to extract the lucrative copper from inside.
Bexley officers also discovered one man hauling car metal parts onto the back of his truck for transport to a scrap metal yard. He had been claiming incapacity benefit since 2008 for a broken leg, pelvis and shoulder. A van driver, meanwhile, was claiming he was incapable of working due to depression.
The operational lead for Bexley Waste and Metal Theft taskforce, acting inspector James Coomber (whose expertise has led to him holding workshops for other UK police forces) said: “Although the majority of scrap metal dealers are legitimate, those who are not are contributing to a thriving illegal trade which we are determined to clamp down on. We will conduct regular operations to detect and arrest those responsible for metal theft and, by working closely with the scrap yards, hope to prevent stolen metal being recycled in the first place.”
Comment from the deputy mayor of London
The deputy mayor of London, Richard Barnes (who attended the launch and chairs the London Resilience Forum), added: “Metal thieves cause huge economic damage and misery to individuals going about their daily lives. It’s clear they will stop at nothing to make a quick buck. I’m delighted to see the enormous strides Bexley has made with the launch of the taskforce. Together with the efforts made under the Met-wide Operation Ferrous, this delivers a forceful message to those intent on carrying out such malicious theft and sabotage that it will not be tolerated.”
The Bexley team will also act in an advisory capacity to other London Boroughs in the MPS region, particularly those areas with high numbers of scrap metal yards which are known to be particularly affected.
Although BT and electricity companies mark all their cables, only certain yards are authorised to receive them. Some scrap metal yards invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in large ‘granulating’ machines to extract the copper from illegal metals. The time it takes from stolen metal arriving a yard to being processed and transported away to the buyer can be as little as 20 minutes.
Yards who do not comply with the law also routinely act in networks, with the first one visited by police calling round others in the local area to warn of imminent searches. A licence to run a yard can be obtained via the Internet by filling in a simple form, and does not have to be renewed annually.
As the industry is run entirely on cash, transactions are hard for police to trace back and, as metals are often distributed for sale via ‘middlemen’, the individuals committing the original crimes can be difficult to track down.
Evidence of organised criminal network involvement
Increasingly, there is evidence that organised criminal networks are moving into the thriving illegal trade in stolen metal.
Offenders are also becoming increasingly adept – police have found adapted ladders, tools and even vans that have specially adapted trapdoors to winch up a manhole cover as they drive over it without being observed.
Another method employed by thieves is to set up around a manhole cover wearing ‘BT’ vests and carrying ‘BT’ passes, but as BT always uses sub-contractors to recover its underground cable they will always be acting illegally.
In September 2011, four men were arrested in Lambeth using two bogus BT trucks, a BT van and a winch to steal underground cable. The same team are believed to be responsible for cable cuts across London and Essex in recent months.
The scale of the problem is having a huge impact as a single piece of copper cable stolen from an underground telephone network can knock out the landlines to more than 200 homes and businesses for up to three days at a time.
Many companies now use fibre optic cable which is valueless to thieves but often damaged in the their attempts to extract the valuable copper lying alongside it underground. As fibre optic cable carries Internet data this can cause significant disruption to nearby residents and businesses.
Incidents can cost millions
The highest number of individuals caught up in a single cable theft incident occurred in Bexley, when 94,000 people had their power disabled for days on end in 2009 after thieves targeted a supply facility near Dartford. The estimated cost of the incident was GB pound 29 million.
More recently, this summer Bexley was again hit after residents in the Larner Road Estate in Thamesmead had to be evacuated when severe flooding and power cuts were caused when thieves attacked copper piping attached to the industrial-sized water tanks situated at the top of residential tower blocks.
Two brothers were jailed in August this year in Bexley after a failed copper cable theft which saw their companion fatally electrocuted. John and Jason Tusting received an eight years, eight months sentence between them for burglary, criminal damage and recklessly endangering life after their accomplice James Payne died.
Copper is not the only sought-after metal thieves are trading in – rising numbers of catalytic converters are being stolen from vehicles due to the lucrative platinum they contain, a crime expected to increase from 3 January 2012 when the Low Emission Zone emissions standards become more stringent.
