Copper Cable Thieves Cut Broadband in Lincolnshire UK Village UPDATE

The Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses after criminals ripped up 1,000 metres worth of Openreach’s (BT) copper broadband and phone cable from Mareham Lane in Scredington, south of Sleaford. As a result, local homes and businesses in the village are said to have been left cut-off for days.

Sadly, attacks against critical UK telecoms infrastructure are not uncommon in the UK, with a spate of similar (Metal Theft) incidents recently striking one area in Cambridgeshire (here). It probably doesn’t help that the price of copper remains stubbornly high, which makes it more attractive to dodgy scrap metal merchants. But as usual, the perpetrators involved have no regard for the significant harm they cause to local people.

The theft itself happened at around 8.30pm on the 27th January 2022 and the police believe the “offenders may have been along the side of the road while they stole the cables, and they may have had a van working at night in a remote location.” Officers are now undertaking extra visible patrols overnight in a number of rural locations.

Lincolnshire Police said:

“We have now opened an investigation and would like to ask anyone with any information about this incident, or who may have witnessed it, to come forward.

The offenders may have been along the side of the road while they stole the cables, and they may have had a van working at night in a remote location.

We are keen to hear from anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area at the time of the offence, as well as any information about vans carrying large amounts of cable in the surrounding area. We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have dashcam footage which could help our enquiries.”

Anybody with information that could assist the investigation is being asked to call 101, while quoting “incident 170 of 28 January“, or you can email force.control@lincs.police.uk. Alternatively, those who wish to remain anonymous can give a report via the independent charity CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111 or online. We have also asked Openreach for an update on their repairs and will report back once that arrives.

We should point out that the new generation of optical fibre cables in FTTP broadband networks have no value to such thieves, but this doesn’t always prevent cable thefts from occurring because the gangs will sometimes target those by mistake. Copper and fibre lines can sometimes also share the same duct, thus damage to one can sometimes impact the other.

UPDATE 4:19pm

Openreach informs that, contrary to the police report, the criminals actually stole a whopping 2,000 metres of cable (this is the thick copper in their ducts, not those thin pairs that enter your home) and around 180 properties have been affected. Little wonder that services have yet to be restored, as the operator will need to both replace all that cable and then repair the related network damage.

A spokesperson for Openreach said:

“It’s really disappointing that local people here are bearing the brunt of criminal behaviour. More than 2,000 metres of our underground cable has been stolen, and the network damaged. Engineers are on-site working hard to carry out repairs but it’s a significant piece of work that is unfortunately going to take time. We will have a clearer idea of exactly how long later today or early tomorrow morning.

Around 180 properties are without phone and broadband. We know how disruptive this is, and we’re doing everything we can to carry out the repair as quickly as possible. Due to the location of the damage, temporary traffic lights will be in place to keep our engineers safe whilst they work.”