FEATURE The
we start to see metal prices increase,
minute
and a lack of enforcement, then we start to see thefts going up."
Criminals cash in At a time when recovery needs to be a priority, there are some who are taking advantage. Unlicensed dealers and criminals are making the most of opportunities to cash in, and some unscrupulous licensed businesses have been happy to oblige by buying stolen metal - largely car parts.
A recent BBC investigation found that thefts of catalytic converters in England rose 600% last year to almost 13,000 incidents, up from 2,000 in 2018.
In a bid to clamp down on metal theft and illegal activity, the British Transport Police led Metal and Waste Crime Week in October, which brought together more than 45 partners including law enforcement agencies, the HMRC, environmental regulators and the National Crime Agency. Over the course of
the week, visits were made to around 500 scrap metal dealers, vehicle dismantlers and illegal waste sites, uncovering almost 140 offences and resulting in a string of arrests.
Enforcement officer at the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, Phil Davies, said on the British Transport Police website that the aim of the operation was to stop criminals who are often not only involved in waste crime, but also in other illegal activities that have a serious impact on communities and the environment.
“We know that criminals will use different types of waste as a way to make significant financial gain, and by using the combined resources and powers of different agencies, we will continue to target, disrupt and bring to justice these criminal enterprises,” he added.
Enforcement is key The Scrap Metal Dealers Act made progress when it was introduced in 2013, Antonia says, but currently enforcement levels are low. She’s hopeful that the trend will reverse as more action is taken, but in the meantime, metal theft remains a key issue for the industry.
“Before the act there were tens of thousands of metal thefts every year but of small value, like a bit of lead flashing from a downpipe,” she says. “Now, it’s whole church roofs that are going. There might be fewer theft events but the value and the implications of that theft are far greater.”
“Of course, a big part of the reason we were having so many opportunistic thefts before the act was the fact that these were the years immediately following the recession. And COVID seems about to throw us into another, so we may well see another uptick.”
In the four years after the act was introduced, metal theft fell by more than three quarters - from 62,000 incidents per year in 2012/13 to 16,000 in 2015/16. At its peak, metal theft cost the economy an estimated £220 million each year.
“The act has done a really good job in bringing down theft but it wasn’t the act in isolation - it was enforcement accompanied by a slump in metal prices,” she said. “The minute we start to see metal prices increase and a lack of enforcement, then we start to see thefts going up - and they are.”
A car with a stolen catalytic converter
The recent Metal and Waste Crime Week initiative that targeted unlicensed dealers generated some good results, Antonia
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