HEAVY METAL CRIME SPREE ROCKS BLACK COUNTRY

27-06-2008

From stolen manhole covers to knocked off copper wiring…the rising demand for metal has sparked a deadly crime wave which has the Black Country as its epicentre. Now West Bromwich MP Tom Watson has come up with a simple solution to the problem.

Watson told The Stirrer that the ever-growing demand for raw materials in emerging economies like China and India had caught the attention of organised crime gangs who’ve muscled in on the scene.

At street level, they’ve recruited an army of desperate small-time villains, often Class A drug addicts, who are willing to risk their lives for even a small amount of metal.

In the Merseyside town of St Helens, for example, a man was recently killed while trying to make off with a live electricity cable – and that wasn’t a unique case.

An explosion in West Brom last year in which two people were injured has been attributed to an attempted gas pipe theft, underlining the desperation of many of those involved.

"One way or another, metal theft accounts for 15% of all the crime in Sandwell", Watson said.

"The Black Country has become the centre of it all mainly because we have a metal bashing tradition, so people know what to do with this stuff.

"There are loads of small workshops that are difficult to police, and scrap metal dealers who open at 5 in the morning who can process it."

He then reels off a list of truly staggering statistics.

"In just one year across the UK, 120 kilometres of copper cable have been nicked and there have been more than 2,500 attempted break-ins at telephone exchanges."

Watson is now lobbying the Home Secretary and Redditch MP with an idea which he believes could dramatically reduce the scale of the problem.

He wants an amendment to the 1964 Scrap Metal Dealers Act which would force them to stop relying on cash.

If payments and receipts had to be made either by cheque or electronic transfer, it would create an accounting trail – making it much easier to trace the dodgy dealers.

"I'm not saying this would be an instant cure, but it would definitely help" Watson said.

"The rogue traders would definitely think twice if they knew the police could follow the money" he said.

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