Boilers - Crackdown on boiler thieves

19/05/2008

Police in Hull and south Wales have started to crack down on a series of boiler and pipework thefts, it has been reported.

According to H&V News, Humberside police arrested a man and woman who they suspected of stealing a boiler from a terraced house earlier this month.

PC Craig Nixon said that local criminals were the target of a wider initiative to deal with thefts from building sites and commented that stealing boilers and pipework can be dangerous.

Meanwhile, Cardiff council revealed that boiler thieves have caused more than £100,000 of damage in their crimes, which have seen the heating units, radiators and copper piping stripped from eight per cent of the council's properties.

Chris Hughes, who manages Cardiff council’s vacant housing stock, told the publication: "In the last financial year we had 80 boilers stolen. These are not old pieces of equipment - these are brand new Worcester boilers we have installed as part of our renewal programme."

Last month, icWales.co.uk published a warning from south Wales police, saying that thieves were putting people's lives at risk by stealing boilers attached to the gas supply.