Police services and heritage experts have successfully carried out a coordinated week of action targeting metal thieves across the country for the first time. Coordinated by British Transport Police (BTP), Hertfordshire Police and Historic England, Operation Crucible targeted the theft and handling of stolen scrap metal, dealers without a licence or operating outside of their licence conditions in addition to flouting the cash ban.
The week of action was fully supported by the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) as part of its efforts to draw wider attention to the potential correlation between yards willing to pay cash for scrap metal and those willing to break the law in other areas.
“We were delighted to support Operation Crucible and welcome the increased focus on cash-paying yards. We believe that yards who pay cash are more likely to accept stolen metal and less likely to abide by environmental regulations, possess the correct licences or enforce adequate health and safety procedures,” said Robert Fell, Chief Executive of the BMRA.
BTP’s Chief Constable Paul Crowther is the national policing lead on metal theft and has recently taken over as the national policing lead for tackling heritage and cultural property crime. Commenting on Operation Crucible he said: “Most scrap metal dealers operate law-abiding businesses. However, we believe there is a minority who continue to flout the law on cashless trading and still pay cash in exchange for scrap metal. This means that law-abiding scrap metal dealers are disadvantaged and the actions of a minority give the industry a bad name.
“Paying or taking cash in exchange for scrap metal has to stop. We are working with partners across the entire country and throughout the metals recycling industry to target those who we suspect of flouting the law or operating outside of their licence.”
The BMRA is committed to tackling metal theft – it is a member of the National Police Chiefs' Council Metal Theft Working Group and has also joined Historic England’s metal theft workshop meetings. As part of this commitment, the Association is advocating to make it illegal to receive cash for scrap metal.
“We hope that the mooted move to consider in greater depth the legality of both sides of the transaction illegal will bring about change as we believe this will act as a real deterrent and reduce the incidence of cash transactions markedly,” said Robert Fell.
Throughout the week, checks have been carried out by several police forces, including BTP, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Essex and Cambridgeshire. They were also joined by colleagues from the UK Border Agency, local authorities, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Trading Standards. While full details will be released in due course, across three days, BTP visited 31 metal dealers, five of whom were given advice on their record-keeping.
Click here to watch an interview with CC Paul Crowther about metal theft.
