Cable thieves leave Stanway estate without phone or internet (From Essex County Standard)

" Hello...HELLO ..cant hear anything Stan !" I'l try again in a bit "

So this happened three days ago and was fixed two. Thats slower reporting than an actual paper!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - This is sabotage, pure and simple, and the people who do it should be charged under anti-terrorism laws. Minimum sentence 20 years hard labour.

Whoever is stealing this cable is selling it to somebody, and really, they are the people we need to be finding. It may seem heavy-handed on the legitimate scrap metal merchants, but maybe we need to be doing a few more spot checks on them. Making sure that any metal coming in is recorded against who sold it, making sure payments are not done in cash, but traceable payments.

This metal disappears into the system somewhere. Yes, we need to catch the people who physically steal the metal, but the bigger fish are the ones who are prepared to buy it. (And remember, it´s not just phone cables, but signal cables, roadsigns, even plaques and war memorials. Huge amounts of damage, and they´ll probably get a fraction of the value).

GreensteadResident wrote:
I've said it before and I'll say it again - This is sabotage, pure and simple, and the people who do it should be charged under anti-terrorism laws. Minimum sentence 20 years hard labour.

GR: you are going to need to build a lot more prisons to house all the people you want to lock up for long periods, assuming you can catch them of course.
Not just metal thieves, but noisy neighbours (as per your comments on the story about Gazelle Court).
You could be one of the few people left free - and it will then be your personal responsibility to see that all these prisoners are fed and watered.
I agree these metal thieves are scum, and should be punished, but as romantic says, the ones we need to catch are the dealers who buy the stolen metal.
A bill is going through parliament to control scrap metal dealers and that may help once it becomes law, but this is a global problem and if the thieves can't sell to local scrap metal dealers they may export their loot to other countries where it is easier to sell.
No doubt we shall also see a rise in back-yard smelting as a way to render stolen metal unrecognisable.
How can a depleted police force stop all this? Who is going to pay the extra taxes necessary to fund that?

romantic wrote:
Whoever is stealing this cable is selling it to somebody, and really, they are the people we need to be finding. It may seem heavy-handed on the legitimate scrap metal merchants, but maybe we need to be doing a few more spot checks on them. Making sure that any metal coming in is recorded against who sold it, making sure payments are not done in cash, but traceable payments.

This metal disappears into the system somewhere. Yes, we need to catch the people who physically steal the metal, but the bigger fish are the ones who are prepared to buy it. (And remember, it´s not just phone cables, but signal cables, roadsigns, even plaques and war memorials. Huge amounts of damage, and they´ll probably get a fraction of the value).

Wholly agree,, we need to implement much stricter regulations on scrap merchants/dealers, because this cable does not just randomly get found . The people purchasing and disposing of it are fully aware of its origins, but ask no questions..

Boris wrote:

GreensteadResident wrote:
I've said it before and I'll say it again - This is sabotage, pure and simple, and the people who do it should be charged under anti-terrorism laws. Minimum sentence 20 years hard labour.

GR: you are going to need to build a lot more prisons to house all the people you want to lock up for long periods, assuming you can catch them of course.
Not just metal thieves, but noisy neighbours (as per your comments on the story about Gazelle Court).
You could be one of the few people left free - and it will then be your personal responsibility to see that all these prisoners are fed and watered.
I agree these metal thieves are scum, and should be punished, but as romantic says, the ones we need to catch are the dealers who buy the stolen metal.
A bill is going through parliament to control scrap metal dealers and that may help once it becomes law, but this is a global problem and if the thieves can't sell to local scrap metal dealers they may export their loot to other countries where it is easier to sell.
No doubt we shall also see a rise in back-yard smelting as a way to render stolen metal unrecognisable.
How can a depleted police force stop all this? Who is going to pay the extra taxes necessary to fund that?

Boris

Are you suggesting that we lock these scumbags away on some desert island penal colony on the basis that it costs too much to feed and build prisons for them?

Boris if you stand for election and put that on your manifesto I'd vote for you.