The court heard how the organised gang carried out 47 attacks at various times of the day between 1 May and 30 August 2011, stealing railway cable and BT communication cabling. The thieves cost Network Rail and BT almost £715,000 to replace and repair the cables as well as fines incurred to train operators as a result of delays, disruptions and cancellations caused.
The gang comprised:
- Christopher Cruz (33) of Mellow Purgess Close, Basildon – sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.
- Kris Kreuder (36) of Elizabeth Way, Basildon – sentenced to one year and four months in prison.
- Shaun Nembhard (44) of Coopersales, Basildon – sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
- John Michael Newton (36) of Newburyside, Basildon – sentencing deferred until March, after the conclusion of other unrelated charges currently under investigation.
- Bill Lee (60), was sentenced to two years' prison, in addition to a two-and-a-half-year sentence he is already serving.
- Simon Scott (45) of no fixed abode but from Leeds – sentenced to three years and six months in prison.
All six men pleaded guilty to their offences at Blackfriars Crown Court on 2 January and were sentenced yesterday (29 January).
Officers were first alerted to the gang in May 2011, when Network Rail reported 400m of cable had been cut and stolen from the line in Chelmsford. A number of other incidents across the railway in the surrounding counties prompted a major investigation by British Transport Police.
On Tuesday, 30 August 2011, as part of a pre-planned operation, officers arrested three men close to Maldon Road, Margaretting, Essex, in possession of a large amount of BT cable. The three men transpired to be Cruz, Newton and Lee. They were all arrested on suspicion of theft and their mobile phones were seized for evidence.
These arrests, together with an examination of their mobile phones, linked the three other men to the crimes. Using automatic number plate recognition technology, their vehicles, spotted at the site of a number of theft sites, also linked them to the thefts.
Sergeant Joe McClenaghan, the investigating officer, said: “These sentences show that it is simply not worth considering stealing cable from the rail network. Using intelligence gathered over a number of months, our officers were able to track the gang’s every movement and arrest them in the act. We will continue to use a number of tactics to crack down on this type of crime, which is anything but victim-less, and we will do everything in our power to bring them to justice.”
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