Measures in place to tackle metal theft (From Salisbury Journal)

Measures in place to tackle metal theft

4:13pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Rural Focus

HOME Secretary Theresa May announced in Parliament last Thursday measures to tackle the wave of metal thefts taking place throughout the country.

She said: “I can confirm that we will make amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to prohibit cash payments to purchase scrap metal and significantly increase the fines for all offences under the existing Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 that regulates the scrap metal recycling industry.

“Cash transactions for scrap metal are often completed without any proof of personal identification or proof that the individual legitimately owns the metal being sold. This leads to anonymous, low-risk transactions for those individuals who steal metal. In addition, the widespread use of cash facilities and poor record-keeping by the metal recycling industry can support tax evasion activity. We shall bring forward further measures in due course.”

NFU chief rural affairs adviser David Collier said: “We are very pleased to see this move from government as metal theft has become a scourge for the farming industry, among others. This will make it so much harder to sell stolen metal and we hope it will deter criminals from engaging in this practice.

“We are keen to see the full details in due course and welcome the Home Secretary’s intention to do more, as part of the government’s wider effort to get to grips with all stages in the heinous trade in stolen metal.”

“The NFU has identified a number of steps that should be taken, including giving the police powers to close scrapyards which support criminal activity and giving magistrates powers to restrict dealers’ freedom to operate.”

In an attempt to crack down on this activity, more than 100 Wiltshire Police officers took part in co-ordinated raids on scrap metal dealers on Monday. Operation Herald is targeting scrap metal dealers in the county. Altogether ten arrests were made and cabling seized, along with beer barrels and lead.

Detective Inspector Pete Chamberlain said he regarded the operation a success: “We have seized a lot of cabling which we suspect is stolen. This is about checking out how scrap metal dealers are running their businesses. They should be taking some personal responsibility.

“We will be getting dealers to sign up to service level agreements. Where we find what we suspect to be stolen metal, the owner or manager of the yard will be arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.”