Reward of £1,000 to catch cable raiders

Police recover some of the metal cables thieves attempted to steal.

Police are appealing for help in finding would-be cable thieves who caused disruption to millions of homes across the country, including thousands in Oldham.

The offenders forced open a manhole cover in Manchester Road, Hollinwood, at around 11.40pm on Wednesday and went down into the 20ft shaft in an attempt to steal BT cables.

They cut away several cables that formed part of a complex telephone cable system, but left empty-handed.

The damage caused disruption to television, telephone and internet services at 2.5million addresses, including homes and businesses.

Engineers from BT have been working over the weekend to try and resolve the issues, and the company is now working with Crimestoppers, offering a £1,000 reward for information leading to arrests and subsequent successful convictions.

Supt Craig Thompson, head of Operation Alloy, said: “Officers from Operation Alloy, GMP’s response to the issue of metal theft, have worked tirelessly to disrupt the crooks whose activities can cause inconvenience and distress to households, businesses and communities.

“Sadly, metal thieves will go to considerable length to get what they want, and the people responsible for this incident have no regard for impact of what they did and even though they left empty handed, we are committed to bringing them to justice.

“We have been working closely with BT for some time and when the alarm was raised; our BT colleagues immediately put in-place Operation Rabbit, their full-scale response to incidents of this nature. We are appealing for any witnesses who may have information to call us and assist our investigation.”

Anyone with any information should call police on 0161-856 8825 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555 111.

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