Police offer scrap metal merchants pact to target thieves

Date published: 25 January 2012

Greater Manchester Police is urging scrap metal merchants in the county to sign up to a new scheme to share photographs and vehicle details of suspected metal thieves.

Scrap merchants Bennett Bros based in Old Trafford have already signed up to the Business Against Metal Theft Initiative (BAMTI) and undertaken to inform police if anyone pictured in the suspects folder given to them by Greater Manchester Police attempts to sell scrap metal to them.

The scheme is the Force’s latest initiative to help make scrap metal merchants less vulnerable to supporting metal theft by accepting stolen goods. It is a part of Operation Alloy that was set up last year to help stem a rise in metal thefts linked to increasing lead and copper commodity prices.

Participating businesses are given a folder that contains numbered photographs of people who have been previously convicted and are suspected to be involved in related illegal activity. These are regularly updated by officers.

The folder also contains registration details and descriptions of vehicles that may be being used to transport stolen metal. Suspects featured in the folders are informed in writing that their images have been shared with scrap yards for these purposes.

Scrap yards in the scheme agree that they will not share the information in the folder with anyone who does not work on that site and that they will keep it in a secure place out of sight of customers and visitors.

Police raids on Bennett Bros through Operation Alloy last year revealed stolen metals on the site. Since then with the help of GMP the yard has introduced measures to detect and deter people offering them stolen metals.

These include 24 hour security, CCTV surveillance and taking still pictures of all visitors to the yard. All staff at the site have also been trained to recognise cabling that has been taken from BT and other telecoms providers and also metal that has been stolen from the train and tram networks.

New stock recording and control procedures have also been introduced that make it easier to track who metal in the yard has been brought from and all metal offered to the yard is now scanned for security marks and fluids before being accepted.

Paul Bennett whose family owns the yard said: “We have worked closely with the police over the last few months to introduce these security measures that will protect us from being used by criminals to off-load stolen goods.

“Many of these changes as well as making us more confident that we are not supporting metal thefts have also helped us become a more efficient business. I would urge other scrap metal yards to join BAMTI and report suspicious activity to help police stop metal thieves spreading misery in our communities.”

Detective Chief Inspector Julian Snowball who is leading on the initiative said: “Over the last year we have been very active in targeting metal thieves and the scrap yards that take in stolen metals without asking too many questions. We will continue to actively target these criminals and rogue scrap yards.

“Through BAMTI we will now share information on suspected metal thieves and the vehicles they use with businesses who participate in this scheme.

“However businesses, whether they have signed up to the scheme or not will still need to be vigilant when accepting metals. This initiative does not absolve them of their responsibility to carry out appropriate checks on people they trade with and the goods being bought.

“Through BAMTI scrap metal dealers can quickly inform us of possible criminal activity, help us bring criminals to justice and reduce the risk of their business becoming involved in supporting metal thieves.”