Reels of copper cable found in latest theft arrest

An 18-year-old man has been arrested after "large amounts of cable" were found in a car boot in Newark.

Nottinghamshire Police said a car aroused suspicions during patrols at Newark Castle railway station on Monday night.

The vehicle sped away but officers said they later found it stopped nearby with a man "seemingly trying to hide from the police in the passenger's seat", and discovered large amounts of copper wiring in the boot.

The man was detained on suspicion of theft of cable and later released on conditional bail, with police saying the latest arrest is part of a wider clampdown on cable theft in the area.

A man was arrested in March after 1,700 metres of cable were ripped out from under the ground on the A617, near Kelham. He was later released on conditional bail.

Insp Charlotte Ellam, district commander for Newark and Sherwood, said: "We've just made tackling serious acquisitive crime - like the theft of cable - one of our policing priorities, which should show how seriously we're taking the multitude of reports of this nature we've received.

"The techniques used to extract the copper cabling in these high-value thefts are very dangerous, while they can lead to costly power outages too.

"We clearly don't want to see this happen, so will be continuing to focus on tackling this criminal activity."

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