Home Office bids to tackle metal theft with new criminal offence, increased fines
The government is to create a new criminal offence that prohibits cash payments to purchase scrap metal, in a bid to clamp down on metal theft.
It will also “significantly” increase the fines for all offences under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 that regulates the scrap metal recycling industry.
The changes will be achieved through amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.
In a written ministerial statement, Home Secretary Teresa May said: “The Government considers that legislation is the only sustainable, long-term solution to the growing menace of metal theft. There is an urgent need to make stealing metal less attractive to criminals, and tackling the stolen metal market will act as a significant deterrent.”
May added that cash transactions for scrap metal were often completed without proof of personal identification or proof that the individual legitimately owned the metal being sold. “This leads to anonymous, low risk transactions for those individuals who steal metal,” she said. “In addition, the widespread use of cash facilitates poor record keeping by the metal recycling industry and can support tax evasion activity.”
The Home Secretary said further measures to tackle all stages in the illegal trading of stolen scrap metal would be brought in due course.
The government has committed – through the National Infrastructure Plan published last November – £5 million for the creation of a dedicated metal theft taskforce aimed at enhancing law enforcement activity.
The Home Secretary’s announcement came just days after MPs on the Transport Select Committee called on the government to reform regulation of the scrap metal industry.
The committee’s report on cable theft on the railway described scrap metal dealers as the “weak link” in efforts to combat this type of crime. Its recommendations included:
- The police should be given additional powers to help them in their efforts to combat metal theft. Officers of the British Transport Police should be able to enter both registered and unregistered scrap metal sites and be provided with additional resources to carry out their enforcement work;
- A new offence of aggravated trespass on the railway should be introduced;
- The 1964 Act should be reformed so that individuals selling metal have to provide proof of their identity before a transaction can take place;
- The Government should test the use of cashless trading in the scrap metal industry;
- There should be greater clarity around compensation arrangements so that train operators cannot profit from disruption caused by cable theft; and
- Network Rail should develop a costed programme of measures to make cable more difficult to steal.
Louise Ellman, committee chair, said: “Current legislation for regulating scrap metal dealers is out of date. We need urgent reform to improve the audit trail generated by the scrap metal industry so that criminals selling stolen metal into the trade can be identified much more easily."
