Five men sentenced for cable theft

29/01/2013

Five men were sentenced today for a series of rail and telephone cable thefts in the summer of 2011. They were all sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Naheed Hussain, CPS London Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor, said: "This is the largest investigation of its kind and involved the theft of more than 10,000 metres of copper cable from London, Hertfordshire, Essex, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire.

"This series of thefts between May and August 2011 is believed to have caused between £560,000 and £740,000 of damage to the Network Rail and British Telecom networks.

"These criminals made tens of thousands of pounds from these thefts that cost a great deal more to fix and caused disruption across the rail and telephone networks.

"CPS London is committed to tackling cable thieves who cause disruption and damage to the country's travel and communication infrastructure."

Background:

Christopher Cruz, Kris Kreuder, Shaun Nembhard, John Michael Newton, Bill Lee, Simon Scott all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.

Sentences:

Christopher Cruz: 45 months

Simon Scott: 42 months

Shaun Nembhard: 27 months

Bill Lee: 24 months

Kris Kreuder: 12 months

John Michael Newton will be sentenced at a later date.