Appeal to catch cable thieves

Sergeant Val Lamb

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

Heywood Sports Village has been targeted by cable thieves in a series of attacks over the last few months which has disrupted the power supply and already forced the centre to close its doors for four days.

Now the police, Rochdale Borough Council and Link4Life are appealing to residents for information that will help them catch the culprits and save the public purse.

Craig McAteer, Managing Director at Link4Life, said: “Since October there has been a steady and sustained effort to dig up and steal external electrical cabling from around Heywood Sports Village obviously in the belief that there is money to be made from selling it on.

“This has resulted in a number of interruptions to services and the cost of repairing the damage and increasing security has cost the tax payer thousands of pounds. It has also caused considerable disappointment to residents who have been robbed of the opportunity to enjoy this new state of the art facility.

“Heywood Sports Village is a valuable asset to the community and people should not be denied access at the hands of a few mindless criminals.”

Sgt Val Lamb of Heywood’s Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “We suspect that the vandals are local people, so we’re appealing to the public to report any suspicious activity or any information that might prove vital in helping us catch the thieves. Please contact us in confidence on 0161 856 8589 and help protect the safety of residents and save our community’s precious leisure facility.”

Police and the council’s community safety team are working tirelessly to try and prevent further thefts and are gathering vital intelligence to secure successful prosecutions. CCTV is surveying the area, equipment is being tested for fingerprints and trading standards are liaising with local scrappage dealers to locate the stolen goods.

The authorities are hoping all of the above activity will lead them to the culprits, it’s just a matter of time.

In the last 3 months there have been around 7 separate incidents and numerous attempts at the sports village on the following dates:

• 2, 14, 28, 30 October 2010 thieves dug up cable supplying electricity to the centres all weather outdoor pitches, meaning that these popular pitches were not available for public hire in the evenings.
• 6, 7, 8, 17, 26 November 2010 they stole cable supplying car park lighting.
• 26 December 2010 the power supply was attacked again whilst the thieves were unable to get away with any cable, considerable damage was done to the supply which resulted in the centre being closed for four days.
• 8 and 9 January 2010 further attempts were made and a shovel was recovered.

If anyone has any information or knowledge about what happened on the above dates please contact Heywood’s Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0161 856 8589 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.