Police hunt woman suspected of cutting phone cables

Lincolnshire Police has issued an image of the suspect

Police are asking for help identifying a woman suspected of repeatedly cutting phone lines in Lincoln.

The Openreach cables have been damaged on 19 occasions since 11 March in the Moorland Avenue and Birchwood Avenue areas, Lincolnshire Police said.

In two cases, vulnerable people were left without connection to their Lifeline alarm system, which summons help if the person has a medical emergency.

The suspect is described as a white woman, approximately 35 years old, with dark hair, seen riding a pink and red mountain bike, and carrying a blue Co-op bag.

Julie Broughton who manages a YMCA charity shop in the area described the internet outages as an "incredible inconvenience".

"It went down on Tuesday at just after 10:00," she said.

"We haven't been able to do any card payments or access the internet at all, which has meant that customers have had to go across the road to get cash out so that they can pay for their purchases.

"We have lost an awful lot of sales and as you can understand, in our position, it's not an option – we need to be making as much money as we can."

Julie Broughton said her charity shop had lost money due to the incident

Officers are appealing for information and security camera footage.

A Lincolnshire Police spokesperson said the force was treating the incidents as deliberate criminal damage and was working with Openreach on the investigation.

"The cables are being severed at the base of the telephone poles, which are in residential streets, and which connect to residential premises," the spokesperson said.

"Each time the cables are cut, scores of homes are being left without access to phone lines and the internet, sometimes for hours, and sometimes for several days while emergency work is undertaken to repair them.

"This can leave people in an incredibly vulnerable position if they rely on a phone line to be able to make or receive calls, or connect to online support services."

Openreach said it was "working closely with the police"

"Not only is this inconvenient for people living in the affected properties, but it's additional work for our engineers who have to go and repair the cables," a spokesperson said.

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.