Thieves caught after cutting through power cable

Tag : Lead Cable


A GANG of Romanian thieves broke into an underground tunnel at apower station in Barking and cut through a 32,000 volt cable.

The crooks were trying to steal expensive copper, lead, and steelcabling from the National Grid plant in River Road.

But their antics set off a burglar alarm and police went toinvestigate at 2.30pm on Sunday March 23.

They found the eight men inside the tunnels, where they had causedextensive damage by stripping out large quantities of copperwiring.

Power Station bosses estimate the cost of the damage to be morethan £85,000.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court on June 12 all eight pleaded guilty toburglary, and were sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on June 13.

They are Nicusor Costeh, 45, Sandu Marin, 29, Eduard Ristache, 25,Pardaian Niculae, 39, Iulian Mihai, 25, Vasile Ivan, 28, FlorinConstantin, 36 and Dan Buzdagan, 33. All eight live in TelfordRoad, Arnos Grove, north London.

Detective Constable Brett Hagen said: "This case involved anorganised group of Romanian burglars who intended to steal inexcess of £85,000 worth of metal cabling from an operational powerstation at great risk to their own personal safety.

"Their guilty pleas and subsequent imprisonment send out a strongmessage that burglaries of this nature will be investigatedrobustly and punished accordingly.