Police this week charged a 31-year-old man who allegedly stole more than 190 metres of telecommunication cable from a Telstra site in Gidgegannup over the King's Birthday long weekend in September, pulling about 500 kilograms of copper out of the ground. Officers also arrested a 41-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman after a member of the public reported suspicious activity along Tonkin Highway in Ellenbrook; police allege they found a significant amount of stolen copper insulation material.
Sergeant Tony Signal of Mundaring police told 102.5 ABC Perth that the Gidgegannup theft "had a significant impact on the Gidgegannup and surrounding areas." He said police are increasingly scrutinising scrap metal recyclers, who are "obliged by law to record any second-hand dealing of copper at the moment and we find that that's slipping through the cracks."
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch previously told the ABC that organised crime groups find ways to circumvent rules when offloading stolen metal. "We know that some scrap metal dealers are doing the wrong thing and doing a lot of business under the table … that's what [the] police's job is to stamp out," he said. "However, when they can't sell it to a second-hand dealer, scrap dealer here, they will put it in a container and they will send large amounts of scrap metal overseas."
A Telstra spokesperson said copper theft widely impacts service companies and that the telco's copper theft prevention team works closely with police across Australia. "We encourage anyone seeing any suspicious activity near our facilities to contact police immediately," the spokesperson said.
The thefts are not limited to telecommunications infrastructure. Last month, detectives charged a man with stealing about 50 metres of copper cabling from an exchange site in Wattleup. The ongoing losses have left stretches of road without street lighting, raising safety concerns and costing taxpayers millions in repairs.