Warning to cable thieves following theft from Tees Yard railway (From The Northern Echo)
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Warning to cable thieves following theft from Tees Yard railway
5:56pm Tuesday 29th January 2013 in News By Joanna Morris
A JUDGE issued a stern warning to would-be cable thieves today.
As he sentenced cable thieves Graham Clayton, 44, and Daniel Cooper,27, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC warned those thinking of following in their footsteps that custodial sentences would be “inevitable”.
The men had been captured on CCTV stealing copper cable belonging to Network Rail/DB Schenker from Tees Yard, near Thornaby in June 2012.
The cable, weighing 32kg, was later sold by Cooper for £120. Cooper and Clayton narrowly escaped custodial sentences due to the length of time the case had taken to come to court.
The judge also took into consideration their guilty pleas and the fact they had avoided stealing live cabling.
During their sentencing at Teesside Crown Court, Judge Bourne-Arton said: “The theft of cabling, I believed, would normally only be met by immediate custody. Those who target railways and copper wire on the railways to sell for scrap may get £100 or so but cause misery and disruption to those using the railways.
“Those people going about their normal lives, going to meetings, to visit loved ones or going to work cannot achieve their modest aims because of people like you going onto to the railways and stealing copper. An example must be set. Those stealing from the railways must go to prison.”
Clayton, of Camden Street, Stockton, received a two year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to three charges of theft of copper cable belonging to Network Rail/DB Schenker. His co-accused Cooper, of London Road, Clacton, was found guilty of one count of theft of copper cable and received a two year conditional discharge.
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