Tyneside transport police crack down on cable thieves

Nov 12 2009 by Sophie Doughty, The Journal

METAL and cable thieves who make life a misery for rail passengers have been stopped in their tracks.

Officers from British Transport Police (BTP) yesterday arrested five people suspected of causing chaos on Tyneside train tracks, by stealing around 500m of copper cable.

The suspects, aged between 19 and 46, were questioned in connection with the theft last month during which lengths of copper cable was cut and stolen from tracks near Pelaw, South Tyneside, causing severe disruption to Metro and mainline rail services.

Police swooped on their homes in South Shields kicking-off a nationwide day of action targeting thieves who steal metal from train lines.

BTP teamed-up with police forces from all over the country to get tough on the cable crooks.

Officers were out in force all day yesterday executing arrest warrants and visiting scrapyards suspected to be involved in the sale of stolen metal.

The action comes on the back of a year of increasing metal prices on world markets, which have resulted in a rise in the number of thefts of rail, cable and other metal.