MP warns against metal theft

Scrap metal dealers should be prevented from trading in cash and be subject to tough licensing arrangements, the Commons has heard. Labour's Graham Jones said scrap dealers should face tougher sentences if they are caught handling stolen metal and the police should have the power to shut down those caught flouting the law. Introducing his ten minute rule bill, the Hyndburn MP warned metal theft is an "epidemic" in this country, particularly from war memorials and signalling cable from the railways. He said it has reached "crisis point", having risen on the electricity networks by 700 per cent in the past two years alone. Proposing his Metal Theft (Prevention) Bill in the Commons, Jones said the current cost of metal theft had been put at £770m and there were 2,712 cable thefts on the railways in the last financial year, which had led to 240,000 minutes of delays for passengers. He told MPs that weak regulation of the industry had allowed dealers to take full advantage of the increasing cost of metal, buying up signalling cable and war memorial plaques from thieves and then selling the metal on. Jones told MPs said there is "widespread support" for the government to introduce tougher measures, from companies such as BT, as well as Lancashire Police. Under the Bill, magistrates would also be able to place tough additional measures on scrap dealers, while those caught would be sentenced not on the basis on the value of metal they had stolen, but on the cost of the damage and disruption they had caused. Stolen metal would also be classed as stolen assets. He told MPs: "War memorials are being stolen, sold and scrapped because the regulatory framework around metal recycling is so ineffective. In combination with the soaring international price of metal, it effectively creates incentives to steal. "Metal recycling is a valuable industry, it is a sustainable means of reusing an increasingly important commodity. However this soft regulatory framework undermines this logic by encouraging thieves to take materials which are still in use. "The problem lies precisely in the fact that it is stolen metal that is being recycled. This Bill will go some way to removing the incentives to steal created by weak regulation in the industry. "This isn't red tape, its intention is to reduce costs to businesses and reduce costs to the public purse incurred through damage to the nation's infrastructure. "This legislation would allow legitimate, law-abiding and socially responsible scrap metal dealers to flourish. Indeed, a few scrap metal dealers meet much of the requirements of this Bill in best practice." The bill will gain a second reading on January 20 2012, but stands little chance of becoming law without government support.