Metal thief who scaled pylons jailed

Desmond Brady

A man who risked his life scaling pylons - just to cut down copper cable - has been jailed.

Desmond Brady, 43, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to attempted theft and damaging property at an earlier hearing. On Monday he was sentenced to three years in prison.

On 21 August 2011, Brady and two unidentified accomplices scaled an electricity pylon at Heaton Farm, off Heywood Old Road, Middleton. Once at the top, the offenders cut through the earth cable and fibre optic cable attached to it.

This triggered an alarm at the National Grid, who sent engineers to the scene and called police.

Brady and the other offenders then climbed the next pylon along and cut through the other end of the earth cable.

At this point National Grid engineers turned up at the scene and Brady and his accomplices fled. However, police patrols spotted Brady walking towards Heaton Park, with his clothing wet and his face covered in mud. He was subsequently stopped and arrested.

The damage was estimated to cost up to £37,000 to repair.

Detective Sergeant Sam Taylor said: "Brady risked his own life, and the lives of others, just to get his hands on this cabling. We have already had incidents in Greater Manchester where would-be thieves have suffered serious electric shocks after trying to steal electrical wire.

"If the cable Brady cut touched one of the live power wires as it fell, then that cable would also have become charged so if it had hit someone else we could have been dealing with a very serious incident, not to mention the risk of injuring himself.

"Thanks to the sterling work by officers, we were able to bring Brady to justice. Together with the Operation Alloy taskforce, we are continuing to work with the National Grid and have plotted the locations of all pylons and substations in Rochdale to ensure that any future incidents are rapidly dealt with."

Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Alloy to tackle metal theft and bring thieves to justice, and in the last eight months has reduced the number of such crimes by up to 65 percent.

The Operation was launched in response to increasing metal thefts fuelled by escalating international commodity prices for lead, copper and other metals.

Detective Sergeant Sam Taylor added: "Officers in Rochdale, together with the Operation Alloy taskforce, will continue to target thieves and the scrap yards that help them profit from their crimes by accepting stolen goods.

"We are also working with scrap yard owners to encourage them to adopt work practices that make it harder for offenders to off-load stolen metals on them and share information on suspects and suspicious activity with their local police officers.

"Metal theft is not just about criminals targeting electric and telecoms cabling and metal from the rail and tram infrastructures. Thieves also target ordinary people in their homes by stealing copper piping and boilers from heating systems and lead from roofs. These crimes cause misery and hardship for often vulnerable people, and we are targeting metal thieves in scrap yards, on the roads as they transport stolen metals and in the communities of Rochdale where they operate."

Anyone with information about metal theft should call police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.