Greg Calls for Big Crackdown on Cable Theft

Greg is calling on the Government to crackdown on thieves who steal copper and other cabling which leads to the loss of power to homes and cuts communication facilities.

Metal thieves are increasingly targeting infrastructure, particularly in less populated rural areas where they are less likely to be caught, often plunging hundreds of homeowners into isolation, with power cuts and the loss of telephone services and the internet.

Greg is calling on Home Office ministers to do more to tackle the problem.  The Government has admitted it is ‘concerned at the current prevalence of metal cable theft’ and has launched intelligence sharing plans between police and industry which have helped capture offenders and ministers say have resulted in 92 additional arrests.

 But Sir Greg is calling for stiffer penalties for these crimes. He says: “In many of these cases the value of the goods stolen is relatively small so the penalty available to the courts does not reflect the misery caused to thousands of people. 

“In some instances, stolen cabling may have a scrap metal value of only a few hundreds of pounds but the theft disables the phone or power network of a whole village.  There should be stiffer penalties for these thieves which recognises the cost and inconvenience to the community of their crimes.”