BT Employee and Copper Telecoms Thieves Jailed After UK Police Sting

The Snaresbrook Crown Court has sentenced a corrupt former BT employee and members of a criminal gang to a total of over 32 years in jail after they were found to have colluded over the theft and damage of vital copper broadband and phone cable, which cost the telecoms operator a total of £279,635.00.

According to the Daily Mail, the criminal gang stole a BTOpenreach van and overalls so that they could pose as legitimate engineers for the purpose of stealing BT’s valuable copper cable. The gang, aided by information received from a BT employee (Zeki Mehmed), targeted multiple sites all over London and in other locations around the country (between 1-3 tonnes of cable was stolen each time).

Tim Naylor, Prosecutor, said:

“They stole from various locations in London which were to be deposited and stripped to be sold for huge profit. This was a criminal enterprise to steal metal cabling belonging to BT and they used vans, uniforms and equipment to retrieve the cabling.

Everything stolen was redundant cabling but this does not take from the fact it was a sophisticated and well organised enterprise which caused huge losses. A BT cable van was stolen and there were no signs of a forced entry which would suggest they would have colluded with at least one BT employee to gain access.”

The crime spree lasted for six months (April – December 2012) before a police sting finally caught all of the key players and stopped their activity. The stolen cable was seized at a scrapyard in Dagenham (Essex).