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Thieves slammed after dodging deadly volts
Sub station on Stanifield Lane, Farington
Metal thieves risked death by dodging 30,000 volts of electricity to steal from nine sub-stations in just 10 days.
Stations across South Ribble were targeted in a wave of crime where copper worth more than £10,000 was taken.
Bosses at Electricity North West, who run the stations, have warned thieves they could have died.
In one incident, a sub-station on Stanifield Lane, Leyland. was targeted, causing a power outage at the nearby Farington Waste Technology Park for several hours.
Thieves also climbed a two-metre pole to steal copper earthing. And in others, padlocks have been broken off the stations exposing live equipment.
Eddie Hamilton, Electricity North West’s asset manager, said: “By stealing metal from the region’s electricity network they are not only risking their lives, but are risking power cuts for thousands of people.
“We will continue to work very closely with the police to try and reduce these crimes and bring offenders to justice.”
The thefts, which happened between January 15 and January 26, follow a number of incidents in the past month where sub-stations have been targeted across Leyland.
Copper is used for earthing equipment which is a safety feature that protects the network and customer’s supplies. Without this, there could be serious damage if there was a fault.
Stations hit include ones on Carr Lane and Kentmere Avenue in Farington, Sumner Street in Leyland, Withy Trees Avenue and Havelock Road in Bamber Bridge and Linden Drive in Lostock Hall.
Mr Hamilton said they were backing moves to introduce unlimited fines for metal thieves.
He said: “I would urge anyone who sees anything suspicious around any of our sub-stations to contact the police or Crimestoppers as soon as possible. We support recent moves by the government, backed by North West MPs, to ban cash transactions for scrap metal and impose unlimited fines for metal thieves.
“We are also investing an additional £1m in security at substations in the North West this year to help protect the network and customers.”
Police said they had introduced targeted patrols and will be visiting sub-stations throughout the night.
Sgt Michael Porter, of Leyland Police, said: “This is an extremely dangerous thing to do and could easily result in serious injury or even death.
“We take this kind of incident extremely seriously and have stepped up patrols and will be monitoring areas as a result.”
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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