ONE of the country’s most senior police officers has named the North East is the “epicentre” for metal thefts.
The deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police, Paul Crowther, has told Parliament more needs to be done to reduce cable and other metal thefts in the region, which is now widely regarded as one of the worst-hit parts of the UK.
Mr Crowther said the problem of cable theft is thought to have started in the North East and then spread elsewhere.
The officer, who chairs a national group set up to target the soaring crime, told the House of Commons transport select committee that such was the extent of the problem that it was now listed as an organised crime priority.
He said: “The North East seems to be the epicentre of metal thefts as far as the railways are concerned, and that is maybe down to the tradition of heavy industry in the area, were people are used to dealing in metal and understand the value of this. That’s what we suspect, we have not got to the bottom of this yet.”
He added: “At the moment the risk to reward balance is heavily in favour of the criminal, the average fine dished out in 2010 was is around £379. With scrap trading at £5,000 a tonne we can see that the system is skewed towards those who might be inclined towards criminality.”
Mr Crowther was speaking after two attacks were made on the Metro system the previous night.
Network Rail staff worked through the night on Monday to replace stolen overhead equipment at South Hylton, while Metro staff had to replace stolen communications cables from Howdon.
Northumbria Police say they have recorded 3,376 incidents of metal theft between January 1 and August 31 this year, of which some 411 have been detected.
Mr Crowther was joined at the select committee hearing yesterday by Network Rail’s operational services director Dyan Crowther who said thieves sometimes targeted periods when signals were being replaced when it was “almost like providing sweets in a sweetshop”.
The committee also heard concerns that metal thefts may impact on the Olympics, even on routes not necessarily directly linked to the games.
Tyne and Wear Metro bosses at Nexus have submitted evidence to the select committee calling for changes in the law to target scrap metal dealers.
