British Transport Police raids carried out in South Yorkshire to uncover metal thefts have proved to be a huge success

A raid carried out in Rotherham was also supported by the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and led to the discovery of stolen goods, including a ride-on lawn mower and a woodchipper, with a value of more than £25,000 and stolen the previous week.

The raids also saw further stolen items seized and returned from multiple burglaries and thefts throughout South Yorkshire, bringing the total value of goods recovered between approximately £140,000 and £150,000. These raids come as part of ongoing work by British Transport Police to crackdown on metal theft with April seeing the introduction of new methods to catch metal cable thieves.

A further raid in north Lincoln led to the recovery of a stolen industrial cleaner with a value of £4,500.

BTP Superintendent Mark Cleland said:

“Our approach to tackling metal crime in the waste industry has been to work with enforcement and national infrastructure partners to disrupt crime and to identify those who use the waste industry to move stolen property.

“In the last 18 months using this approach we have made hundreds of arrests and recovered thousands of items of stolen property.

“The owner of the ride-on mower would have had to pay over £25,000 which he couldn’t afford, and he was going to wind up the business until he received the phone call this week that it had been recovered by our officers.

“The waste sector is key to keeping the country running and we continue to support those who run legitimate businesses. For everyone else, we’re looking at you, we’ll continue to make arrests, seize criminal assets and shut down illegal operations.”

A spokesperson from Joint Unit for Waste Crime added:

“This operation, supported by the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, again displays our ongoing commitment to bring together the skills, capabilities and resources of partners to target criminals and their networks.

“We will continue to find innovative ways to impact upon and pursue those individuals and companies who use the waste industry to commit crime, exploit people and harm the environment.”

Anyone who spots something at a railway station can report it by contacting British Transport Police by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40.

Anonymous reports can be made via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.