OneWingedBird
Beloved of Ra
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2003
- Messages
- 15,431
Then someone didn;t know the difference between confidence and competence. :?
Mr Edeson was pronounced already dead at the scene.
rynner2 said:Copper cable thief Keith Greaves electrocuted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15889043
Leeds mum left kids in squalor
A Leeds mum who neglected her children by leaving their home without gas, electric or running water after stripping the property of copper piping has been jailed for two years.
Police and social services discovered the woman, her partner and two children living in squalor at the house in Leeds.
All four were sleeping in one room while 20 cannabis plants were growing in the other bedroom. The stench from the fridge made a police officer “wretch” as it contained rotten food.
Kitchen surfaces were covered with mould while the toilet was full of human waste and could not be flushed as the water supply had been cut off and there was no lighting.
There were no carpets in the rooms and floor and skirting boards had been removed in order to get to copper piping.
Kama Melly, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the authorities were alerted in March when a housing officer visited the family home and noticed a “repugnant smell”.
The officer, a former social worker, described the state of the home as the as the worst he had ever seen.
Neighbours had also reported the couple over their concerns at the children being left outside in the sun.
Police and social services forced their way into the house on June 5 and the pair were arrested. The water tank had also been removed and the boiler dismantled.
Empty cider bottles were strewn around the house and there was dog excrement on the floor.
While on bail the mother, who was pregnant at the time, was arrested in a house nearby and found with a bag of tools. She later admitted breaking into other properties in the neighbourhood to steal scrap metal.
The court heard she caused £8,000 of damage to the properties as well as a further £8,000 in her own home.
She pleaded guilty to neglect, production of cannabis and theft and asked for 11 further offences to be taken into consideration by the court, She was jailed for two and a half years.
Her partner pleaded guilty to neglect and was jailed for 18 months. Theresa Clark, for the mother, said the children did not suffer any physical harm during the three-month period and she had an addiction to alcohol and amphetamines. The barrister said she stole copper piping and grew the cannabis in a bid to buy the children Christmas presents and pay for a bond on a new home.
Richard Reed, for the father, said he did not spend much time at the house and was not responsible for the damage. Mr Reed said his client also had a drink problem which he was trying to address.
Jailing them, judge James Spencer said: “You two decided that you had other priorities rather than these children.
“The standards which you generally adopted for your household were disgraceful.”
Llandough Hospital surgery suspended after cable theft
Eight cancer operations were cancelled after copper cabling was stolen from a hospital in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Eighty one patients were affected on Wednesday by the theft from a back-up generator at Llandough hospital near Cardiff.
Hospital managers said Tuesday's theft of 100m of cabling was "dangerous and irresponsible".
A new back-up generator is being tested before routine surgery can resume.
It was too late for Wednesday's morning list of 36 operations, including two breast cancer operations, which was cancelled as a precaution.
Another 45 operations scheduled for the afternoon were also cancelled after a meeting.
The University Health Board chief executive Jan Williams called the theft "mindless".
She said: "NHS staff work tirelessly to care for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and it is depressing to note that, for these thieves, the monetary value of copper is of more consequence."
Llandough deals with non-emergency operations, including orthopaedic and breast surgery.
Ms Williams said the cancellations were "traumatic" for the two breast cancer patients in particular but she said their operations would be rescheduled as quickly as possible.
Health managers are taking steps to provide secondary back-up facilities but these were not in place to allow afternoon operations to take place.
Replacing the cables could cost up to £20,000.
The theft was reported to South Wales Police just after 14.00 GMT on Tuesday.
West Yorkshire post boxes 'stolen for scrap'
At least nine post boxes have been stolen in West Yorkshire, the Royal Mail have said.
The pole or wall-mounted boxes have been taken from several locations in and around Wakefield, including Crofton and Pontefract, since October.
Postal worker Sarah Moreton said the boxes were "just disappearing".
Auctioneer Gary Don said there was little collectors value for the boxes and that they were "almost certainly going for scrap".
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We can confirm that a number of post boxes in the West Yorkshire area were stolen recently.
"We apologise to any customers who have been inconvenienced by these thefts."
West Yorkshire Police have been informed.
Life-size polar bear skeleton stolen from Wiltshire garden
A life-size bronze sculpture of a polar bear skeleton has been stolen from the front lawn of a house in Wiltshire.
The figure, worth more than £15,000, was taken from a property in West Hatch near Tisbury on Monday night.
Created by local sculptor Mark Coreth, it was part of a campaign to highlight the plight of Arctic polar bears.
PC Matt Price said: "It is often the case that items are stolen to be sold as scrap metal so we need to locate the sculpture quickly."
Life-sized polar bears, carved out of blocks of ice frozen around the bronze impression of a bear's skeleton, were created by the artist in London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
It was part of a campaign by the World Wildlife Fund to highlight the plight of the polar bears in the Arctic, where melting ice is threatening their survival.
According to the police, the sculpture was not free standing and had been "secured with a metal structure".
"Due to the size and weight of the sculpture we suspect that a low loader with a Hi-Ab would be required to pull the sculpture from its moorings," said PC Price.
"With that in mind, I would like to hear from anyone who saw large vehicles in the area or any suspicious activity."
Railway metal thief Terrence Bullock was electrocuted
A metal thief who touched a 25,000 volt power line was "lifted into the air like a ghost", an inquest has heard.
Terrence Bullock of Canvey Island in Essex died trying to steal cable from the railway at Hadleigh, near Benfleet.
An inquest in Chelmsford heard how the 46-year-old was with accomplice Mark Bradshaw in June 2012 when he died.
Bradshaw told the hearing: "He touched the live wire... his whole body lifted up. His body went limp as soon as he touched it."
Bullock was standing on a box when he cut an overhead wire with bolt-cutters, the inquest heard.
Bradshaw, who was jailed for a year for his role in the failed theft, said: "It sparked everywhere. Terry said, 'get out of here'."
The men ran from the scene but then Bullock decided to return to get the cable, saying he needed the cash.
Bradshaw said he then watched as his friend was electrocuted.
"I knew I couldn't go near him, I panicked and ran."
A narrative verdict that Bullock died of an electric shock at the scene was recorded.
A SCRAP metal dealer was electrocuted with 11,000 volts after trying to steal copper from a derelict mill in Morley.
John Roberts, aged 39, then fled from Park Mills before driving to his girlfriend's house in Bramley in a panic where his hair, skin and t-shirt began burning off.
Mr Roberts, of Winrose Avenue, Belle Isle, died in the burns unit at Pinderfields General Hospital 10 days later where he had 37 per cent burns.
A Leeds inquest heard that the voltage was so high the implement used to get at copper wires may have melted completely.
In a police statement read out in court, girlfriend Nina Hurley, of Bramley, told of the horrifying moment she heard Mr Roberts - also known as Bod - screaming in his van outside her home.
"At about 5.10am I heard Bod's van coming along the street. I heard this strange screaming noise. Bod unlocked the front door and screamed 'help me'. He came into the front room, sat in the chair and appeared to hyperventilate. He was shaking and his teeth were chattering. He was panicking.
"His skin was splitting on his hands and lips. His T'shirt had been burnt off. His face was all burnt, the only white was his eyes and teeth. His eye brows and eye lashes were all burnt."
The inquest heard there were prominent safety notices from Yorkshire Electricity warning of the high voltage and danger of death.
These were based around the transformer room within the mill on South Street where there was 11,000 volts buzzing about inside.
The court heard Mr Roberts' injuries were caused by contact with a switch box which would have had an impact similar to putting a "blow torch on the skin".
Police found that equipment had been tampered with and that copper had been systematically stripped.
A leather belt was found on the railings above a wall at the site - probably used by Roberts as he fled.
Assistant deputy coroner Melanie Williamson said: "I am in absolute amazement how Mr Roberts managed to leave the transformer room, climb over the wall and into the car and drive over to Nina Hurley's house."
Ms Hurley called 999 and he was taken to Pinderfields where he later died.
The inquest heard that Mr Roberts had gone to the mill two nights earlier with Jill Dowthwaite who he had been seeing for a month.
They broke off the padlocks and climbed over railed walls in a bid to steal scrap metal.
Through a police statement read out in court, Mrs Dowthwaite told how she could hear a loud buzzing noise.
The pair then left, only for Mr Roberts to return to the spot alone two nights later on August 4, 2007.
He died of multiple organ failure at 2.37am on August 14, 2007.
The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
5,000 Leeds homes left in darkness last year as 5km of power cables stolen
About 5km of power cables was stolen in Leeds last year – making the city one of the worst places in the north for such thefts.
There were 57 attacks on overhead lines and electricity sub-stations in the city – nearly one in 10 of the incidents recorded by power distributor Northern Powergrid, which covers the whole of Yorkshire and the North East.
Nearly 5,000 Leeds homes had their power supply interrupted as a result.
Nigel Walker, who handles metal theft problems for Northern Powergrid, said there was evidence thefts were being co-ordinated by organised gangs – and Leeds was in an extremely vulnerable position because of its location.
He said: “Leeds is a hotspot area. It has a very good motorway network, it’s a central point for criminals to pass through and pinch cable then transport it outside of the region.”
Despite the high number of incidents in Leeds, there were only five arrests relating to cable thefts last year.
Mr Walker said the company had actually seen a reduction in overall crime numbers but metal was being stolen in larger quantities by organised groups.
“A greater amount of metal is being stolen and more customers are being affected,” he said. “I think the attitude of thieves is if they are going to risk their lives, they might as well make it worth it.
“There is evidence it is being put into metal containers and shipped out through the ports, rather than being sold through scrap yards as it has been in the past.”
As well as the danger of electrocution faced by thieves who attack power lines, thefts can cause a fire risk to householders whose power supplies fluctuate.
In 2011 a copper cable theft caused an explosion which wrecked a row of houses in Castleford.
Agreed, on both counts. Especially where homes are left without electricity after these thefts, there should be massive fines and/or serious jail time for those caught. They need to understand that it is simply not acceptable to ruin hundreds of people's lives for the sake of a few hundred quid for the scrap. There are too many selfish arseholes around who think nothing of ruining the lives of others for their own ends.krakenten said:The damage these 'metal men' do in pursuit of their pitiful hauls is astounding...
And if they get cooked, well, so much the better.
LordRsmacker said:It's not sad, they are just thieving scum. There's nothing sad about people being too greedy and lazy to work rather than steal for a living.
The thing is, a trip to a sub-station will present a thief with a Russian Roulette scenario, he can take his pick of several busbars or cable links, but they may not all be live, he's not going to know.
Minor crime? Really? If you suffered a power cut in the middle of February due to one of these morons, you'd possibly not think so.fluxed said:And people would rather attend to minor crimes,
than the gang of criminals ruling the country.
I would prefer to expose these energy companies
for their greed, than their minor losses in copper theft.
Again, people fail to analyse the causes, and jump
straight into the deep end of judgement.
If people are unable to get a job, what should
they do starve?
No different from the old laws stopping desperate
adults going onto land, to take food for their
children. The king would kill us for doing this.
The king was a hyper criminal invader, taking
this land from the natives in the first place.
And his family rule to this day.
Metal thefts have fallen by a third in England and Wales since a new law to tackle the trade in stolen metal came into force, new figures show.
Thefts fell from about 60,000 a year to 40,680 in 2013/14 following the introduction of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
The law requires dealers to hold a licence to trade, and bans cash payments to mobile scrap collectors.
They should make a short film of this to show to idiots so that they know what can happen.
's'funny, I was thinking the same thing, but more of a Panorama-type documentary. Lingering camera shots of blackened cables and scraps of scorched clothing lying on a concrete floor encrusted with greasy ashes. Maybe an eyeball.