X
Home & Office

North Lincs village hit by BT copper cable theft

Hundreds of meters of copper cable were stolen in the North Lincolnshire village of Winteringham earlier this month, BT has said.According to the telco, the theft of more than 330 meters of copper occurred late on the evening of 15 September, and phone and broadband services were restored to local residents within two days.
Written by David Meyer, Contributor

Hundreds of meters of copper cable were stolen in the North Lincolnshire village of Winteringham earlier this month, BT has said.

According to the telco, the theft of more than 330 meters of copper occurred late on the evening of 15 September, and phone and broadband services were restored to local residents within two days. BT said in a statement that engineers had "worked round the clock" to replace and re-joint the cable.

BT apologised to the affected customers and pointed out that it was stepping up the security around its copper cabling. In July, the company said it was deploying a forensically coded invisible paint called SmartWater, to make pilfered copper identifiable.

More than 200 people have been arrested in the last year for stealing from BT's network, the company said, adding that it had "established a nationwide intelligence-led taskforce whose strategy includes attending crime scenes, liaising closely with police and visiting scrap metal dealers".

In April, the company had to replace nearly three kilometres of cabling after a similar theft.

Editorial standards