Rail boss from Fochriw sentenced for role in stealing £17,000 of cabling

A railway construction boss has been given a 16-month suspended jail sentence for his part in stealing £17,000 worth of cabling.

Paul Jones, a 37-year-old construction manager at Siemens Rail Automation, was working on a £25 million re-signalling project on the Berks and Hants railway line and abused his position to identify where the most valuable cable could be stolen.

The thefts was said to have cost Siemens £340,000.

Merthyr Crown Court was told how Jones, of Ael-y-Bryn, Fochriw, would drive a hired flatbed truck, with the stolen cable, along the M4 to scrap metal dealer Darren Jones.

The court heard how the owner of Merthyr Metal Recycling was able to use his position to remove identity markings from the cable before selling it on.

Between April 1 and July 17, 2015, the pair managed to steal almost 8.5 tonnes of cable which was then sold on for a total of £17,110.

However, the plan began unravelling when Paul Jones was issued with a fixed penalty notice for driving a truck with an overweight load at junction 15 of the M4.

This raised suspicions as to why the truck, which was hired specifically to transport cable between Ufton Nervet and Newbury, was being used so far west, particularly as Jones had a company car, a BMW 1 Series, for commuting.
Operation Leek was launched and, following a three-month investigation into the theft of railway cable in the Theale and Thatcham areas of Berkshire, both men were arrested during a series of dawn raids in and around Merthyr Tydfil in August last year.

Appearing at Merthyr Crown Court on Friday, June 24, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to theft of railway cable, both men were sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.

Paul Jones was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work on behalf of the community, while 49-year-old Darren Jones, of High Street, Dowlais, was placed on curfew for four months.

DC Dan Murdoch, of British Transport Police, said the thefts were “a calculated, pre-planned joint conspiracy”.
He said: “Paul Jones was a supervisor, employed by Siemens in a senior role specifically to oversee the recovery of redundant cable as part of the Berks and Hants re-signalling project.

“Part of his job was to oversee staff and help prevent the theft of railway cable. Not only did he abuse his position to steal the cable he was being paid to protect, but he also encouraged workers under his supervision to assist with the thefts by using them to transport bags of stolen cable from Newbury to Merthyr Metals.

“This case is as much about the reputational damage, costs and delays accrued to the re-signalling project as it is the value of the stolen goods. The ramifications are so serious that Siemens – who estimated a total cost to the business of £340,000 as a result of the thefts – stated that a smaller company may not have survived.

“Network Rail has a national supply chain to recycle or sell cable to fund future projects; therefore, these thefts have had a direct impact on passengers who often have to foot the bill when thieves strike.”