Cable guys’ crime spree cost £100K

Jul 26 2009 by Garry Willey, Sunday Sun

During one theft from a manhole access near Scotswood Bridge, Sewell and Jason Bain used their works van to carry away 310 metres of non-live cable.

Sewell alone had loaded another drum of cable to his van and towed it away from his employer’s yard, the court heard.

Investigation showed the vast majority of the copper had been cashed in during repeated trips to ERM Limited scrap yard in Blaydon – fetching a total of £35,000.

Sewell, funding a heroin and crack addiction, and Jason Bain were each jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Judge Guy Whitburn said he gave credit for their guilty pleas but warned: “This was a carefully planned raid on BT cable.

“Some of it was in use and the cost to BT and eventually to those who are shareholders or subscribers to BT services was very considerable.

“It is clear there was someone else giving you the information but it was you who had the ability and the knowledge to extract this cable.

“These are extremely serious offences.”

Thomas Bain was given a 36-week jail sentence suspended for three years and ordered to carry out 300 hours’ unpaid work.

Police, who searched through hours of CCTV footage and examined computer records from the scrap yard, identified 45 separate trips by the thieves, the court heard.

“There was someone behind this pulling the strings,” Sewell’s barrister Shaun Routledge told the court.

“Someone knew where the cable was.”