Railway cable theft warning after three sentenced

Peter Wilson and Gareth Gregory were both sentenced to nine months

Police have warned thieves that stealing railway cable is "not a victimless crime" after sections of the track were targeted in south Wales.

British Transport Police said the offence was costing the rail industry millions as well as causing big delays.

Two men were jailed on Friday for nine months for stealing cable from Llandarcy, Neath Port Talbot, in 2014.

A third had a nine-month suspended sentence imposed for cable theft, drug possession and fraud.

Cable cut

Swansea Crown Court court was told of two incidents where railway signalling cable had been cut in the Llandarcy area.

On 9 July 2014, a section of cable had been cut and coiled ready for removal. This triggered three track circuit failures, causing the signaller to receive a false indication that the section of track was occupied by a train.

The following day, nine track circuit failures were reported at 11:15 BST when 50 metres of signalling cable were stolen from the same location.

British Transport Police (BTP) were called after rail engineers spotted torch lights on the tracks after the second incident.

The three men were caught half an hour later when the vehicle they were travelling in was stopped by transport police.

Gareth Gregory, 36, of Llansamlet, and Peter Wilson, 44, of Llysgwyn, Morriston, were jailed for nine months and Philip Jeffrey Beynon, 48, of Neath, received the same sentence suspended for 18 months.

'Huge impact'

Det Con Dan Murdoch said: "The perception that these are victimless crimes could not be further from the truth.

"Cable theft costs the rail industry millions of pounds each year and forces delays which have a huge impact on passengers and train services."

He added: "BTP, Network Rail and the criminal justice system takes a dim view of this type of activity and simply will not tolerate any behaviour which threatens the infrastructure of the country."