Cable theft is a major problem for network operators, especially companies like BT Openreach with a significant amount of copper cable underground which is what thieves will target. Essex police yesterday announced that following guilty pleas, a group of thieves have been sentenced to years in prison for their role in theft over a nine-month period. The thefts caused massive outages for residents and businesses in the area costing £1 million.
Source: Essex Police
The gang used 4×4 vehicles to pull cables out of manholes. The police were able to locate a vehicle and following a forensic search, identified one of the culprits, leading to the rest of the suspects being identified and arrested in September 2022.
Two years later, Billy Lee Jr, Levi Lee, Samuel Sheady-Jones and Ashley Byford pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court last week being handed down sentences ranging from sixteen months to almost five years each.
“This group caused widespread disruption, across a number of areas in England and Wales over a nine-month period.
There was a significant impact on Openreach as a business totalling more than £650,000, which includes the cost of replacement of copper cable, materials, labour and any traffic management and civil engineering costs.
There was also an indirect financial cost to the business and its customers, with 16,000 customer lines disrupted and I have absolutely no doubt that the offences caused vulnerable people to be cut off from family, friends and assistance in an emergency.
This group may have thought they were acting under the radar and weren’t going to get caught. But unfortunately for them, we were able to piece together their movements and their actions and ultimately prove unequivocally that they were responsible.
The evidence and information which Openreach was able to supply played a large part in helping us build our case against the group and I’d like to thank them for working so hard alongside us. Ultimately, this work has resulted in a group of people being brought to justice.”
Detective Inspector Frazer Low, Essex Police
A representative from Openreach states they had a dedicated security team which investigated such attacks and used alarms on its network which were monitored by its 24×7 control centre.
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so if it cost openreach £650.000 then fine them that amount between them. Might make people stop and think “if I get caught I will have to re-imburse the money”
Indeed. They likely don’t have that amount, but deducting a set amount from their prison earnings, and then from their state benefit upon release, should be imposed.
Then if they don’t have enough money to live on they resort to crime again