Arrests as Kent Police Clampdown on Openreach Cable Thieves

Good news. One man has been charged, and three others arrested (currently released on bail), in connection with several thefts of Openreach’s copper broadband and phone cables across Kent (England) during the late spring and early summer this year. The incidents caused significant service outages across several villages.

The perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they cause to residents and businesses, some of which are dependent upon their home phone service. The situation is made worse by the fact that it’s not uncommon to see a spate of attacks like this hit the same area before starting to subside as the gang(s) move on – often as a result of increased public awareness, police activity and security enhancements (e.g. CCTV cameras, drones).

Crimes like this have become increasingly common over the past two years, driven in part by the high price of copper, but in recent months the police have started to have more success. This is partly attributed to the fact that regional police forces are now starting to target their Serious and Organised Crime Units (SOCU) toward the activity.

For example, in August 2022 four men were arrested in relation to cable thefts that occurred around North Yorkshire. Arrests have also taken place in South Norfolk and three men were recently arrested in Essex, which relates to a huge £1m cable theft investigation that covers 25 thefts (that also covered crimes committed in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk).

The same can now also be said of Kent, where police in the county have recently made three more arrests and charged one individual (Tony Chantler – 23) with conspiracy to steal, which relates to several incidents where cables were stolen or damaged at rural locations in Cranbrook, Rye and Tunbridge Wells, among other places. According to Kent Online, Chantler is due to appear before Medway magistrates today.

The rollout of full fibre (FTTP) broadband services should, eventually, help to mitigate such thefts as fibre has no major value to thieves. However, this won’t completely stop the problem from occurring in the short to medium-term because fibre and copper cables often share some of the same ducts and copper cable thieves sometimes mistakenly pull fibre out of the ground too, thinking it’s copper.

Openreach has a partnership with Crimestoppers that offers rewards of up to £1,000 (sometimes significantly more) for information given anonymously to the charity about cable thefts, if it leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible – you can contact them 100% anonymously on 0800 555 111 or use their anonymous online form. You can also contact Openreach’s security team direct, or if you see a crime in progress, then call the police.