Scrap Metal Theft Petition

[Gareth Hughes]

In the course of the last month:

http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/9276980.War_memorial_stolen_from_Oswaldtwistle_church/

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...gang_damages_doncaster_war_memorial_1_3837727

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/9294902.Thieves_steal_plaque_from_Sidcup_war_memorial/

http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/s...-plaques-from-a-war-memorial-101022-29545106/

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/9300557.Bronze_Croydon_war_memorial_stolen/

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/...eques_roll_in_for_Honour_the_Fallen_campaign/

No scrap dealer can have been unaware (unlike, perhaps, with a bit of anonymous-looking lead) where these came from, and that they can't have been obtained legitimately.

 

[wobs]

And bronze as well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-14279752

The scrapyard that we use had some large cast iron mooring points from one of Hull's disused docks. They thought it suspicous, and it turned out they were stolen. As they record the vehicle deatils of who they buy off, they were able to trace them. There are legit scrap yards out there, and they are obviously in favour of the less honest ones been clamped down on.

 

[Penners]

Crime-fighting generally tries to reduce crime, making it more difficult and therefore less profitable for the criminal. Just because it is not 100% successful is no reason to abandon the concept.

I absolutely agree. But for a deterrent to stand any chance of even minimal success it must appear to the criminal to increase the risk of discovery and capture. Regrettably, I don't think this idea does that.

I could place a large notice in my window saying, "If you burgle my house I shall call the police". This could be described as a deterrent to burglars, but would it reduce my risk...?

 

[Penners]

I wonder if smartwater survives after the lead is molten down?

From the website of Physorg.com:

The [Smartwater] adhesive is almost impossible to be cleaned off but could be burned off, so SmartWater has added a
unique mix of dozens of compounds of rare earth metals, which it refers to as a "synthetic DNA," that can
survive fire and attempts at removal. If police or a dealer suspect the object has been stolen, it can be
examined at the SmartWater laboratory, which can identify the owner of the object.

Whether this applies at the temperatures required to melt down various metals, it doesn't say.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I was at an "Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage" seminar today and this petition was mentioned several times. Despite the comments here about it being pie in the sky, the idea is being taken seriously and may well make it into law in the next 12 months.

This will mean the end for many smaller scrapyards, but the view is that if they won't introduce effective regulation, that's just tough* - metal theft has become a huge economic problem, historic buildings being only the tip of the iceberg. One of the speakers took six hours to get to Norwich from London, because of the theft (yet again) of signalling cables at Ilford. The cost to the economy of the results of that sort of metal theft has pushed the matter right up the Things to Do list.

What it won't stop is the increasing amount of "scrap" that goes straight into containers that leave Felixstowe for the Orient, without passing through a UK scrapyard at all.

SmartWater equivalents are available which leave a detectable trace, unique to the batch marked with it, which remains on anyone who has handled the metal, so it doesn't have to be a matter of identifying an anonymous lump of lead in a scrapyard.

(*and arguments about it being economically unfair to scrap dealers to force them to implement new systems of monitoring and recording are unlikely to gain much sympathy given the astronomical prices of the metal and the profits involved)

 

[biffvernon]

Why will it mean the end for many smaller scrapyards? No cash payments will only affect non-income-tax paying dealers.