Essex: Six to be sentenced today after attacks on railway and communications cables (From Halstead Gazette)
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Essex: Six to be sentenced today after attacks on railway and communications cables
10:50am Monday 28th January 2013 in News
Essex: Six to be sentenced today after attacks on railway and communications cables
Six men whose attacks on railway and communications cable across Hertfordshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire and London cost almost £650,000 are due to be sentenced today at Blackfriars Crown Court.
Christopher Cruz, 33, of Mellow Purgess Close, Kris Kreuder, 36, of Elizabeth Way, Shaun Nembhard, 44, of Coopersales, John Michael Newton, 36, of Newburyside - all Basildon, Essex – and Bill Lee, 60, who is already serving a jail sentence, admitted conspiracy to steal cable from the railway network on January 2.
Simon Scott (45) of no fixed abode but from Leeds, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal railway cable, following a detailed British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.
The court heard how the organised gang carried out 47 attacks at various times of the day between 1 May and 30 August 2011, stealing railway cable and BT communication cabling from the line in Hertfordshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire and London.
The thieves cost Network Rail and BT almost £650,000 to replace and repair the cables as well as fines incurred to train operators as a result of delays, disruptions and cancellations caused.
After the group were arrested, officers carried out a detailed investigation, examining their mobile phones, linking the men to their crimes. Using automatic number plate recognition technology, their vehicles, spotted at the site of a number of theft thefts, also linked them to the thefts.
