Thieves strip the UK bare

Heartless criminals are plundering everything from power cables to children’s graves to cash in on the soaring price of scrap metal. Gangs are even travelling from Europe to strip railway wiring, snatch metal railings and rip down power lines in a £1billion crime-wave that threatens to plunge parts of Britain into darkness this winter. Last night David Cameron was urged to get a grip on the spiralling crime to prevent power blackouts. Nothing is sacred to the criminals, who also steal garden ornaments, farm gates and road signs. They plumbed new depths when they tore railings from a baby’s grave. The distraught parents of Jordan Lee Cardiss, who died from meningitis at just 18 months, were left “sickened”. The railings, put up by his father, 27-year- old Dean Cardiss, were taken, along with the gates to New Wortley Cemetery in Leeds.Mother Stacey Plain, 27, said: “It is all I have left of my son. You can tell it’s a baby’s grave. The people who did this are scum.” Soaring prices and a rampant black market have caused the theft of metal to rise by 1,000 per cent in two years. Ministers met last week to discuss converting the British metal trade to a cashless system where all transactions require identification and a credit or debit card. With France and Belgium already going cashless, the UK has fallen prey to “theft tourism” with gangs coming from mainland Europe to rip out our power network. Graham Jones, Labour MP for Hyndburn, Lancashire, said the UK was seen as the “soft option” for European criminals because scrap metal dealing legislation was outdated.