There is an epidemic of metal theft around the country, as thieves plunder building sites, farms and roadworks for material that they can sell to scrapyards – which seldom seem to ask for verification

DENIS O’DONOVAN, a civil contractor based in Cork, noticed a surge in thefts from his work sites about two years ago, when the price of scrap metal began to rise. The stealing has continued: thieves are scouring farms, small building sites, churches, sport clubs and homes for metal that they can turn into cash.

The problem is compounded by the fact that many scrap-metal recycling companies do not require proof of where material comes from. With prices for steel, copper, brass and aluminium driven high by international demand, what was once considered worthless is now valuable.

“I had a break-in in two office sites alone in the past three months,” says O’Donovan. “We were upgrading all the services in a town, and for the last two weeks of the job they must have been watching what we were doing. We parked a big machine in front of the doors of the site office at night, and they moved the machine. They took a laptop, printer, Cat scanner and about €4,000 worth of materials.”

Many of those targeting businesses and builders are well organised, with cutting equipment, transport and knowledge of what is worth taking. The threat of theft has added costs and time to certain jobs, as materials have to be packed away or security hired to protect them.

“We were doing a job renewing a stretch of dual carriageway near Carrigtwohill, in Cork, which we finished at the end of August, having been there since June,” says O’Donovan. “We had a number of items taken, most significantly metal road plates, which are used for covering holes at night. These plates they took are large: you’d need a crane or a lorry to lift them. They weigh 600kg or 700kg each and will probably fetch €100 each when they are brought to a scrapyard.”

Eircom says it has had two thefts in the past fortnight. At Johnswell, in Co Kilkenny, 2,500m of cable was taken; it will cost about €10,000 to replace. At Kilmoganny outside Carrick-on-Suir, 100m of cable worth €2,000 was stolen. The ESB says high wires have been cut for the metal inside them.

And last weekend a bronze, copper and brass monument in Co Laois, erected to commemorate the lives of more than 30 young people from the parish of Castletown, was stolen from its site next to the River Nore. After the theft a local TD, Seán Fleming, called for regulation of the scrap industry. He says this type of theft is “widespread now in the last couple of months, right throughout the country. Scrap metal is being stolen everywhere.”

Last week gardaí investigating the theft of 92 empty beer kegs in Bandon, Co Cork, believed they too were probably stolen for their scrap value.

Many scrapyards I approached did not want to comment on the issue of stolen metal. One tradesman let me tag along as he tried to sell some scrap, including a water cylinder, old radiators and other brass and copper items. I waited outside several scrapyards as he negotiated. He visited three premises that buy metal for recycling, and none asked for identification or proof that the material was legitimate. At one, staff asked for a car registration number and a signature; then they issued a receipt. Another large yard did not ask for identification or information; nor did it give a receipt, even though it was offering to pay €100 for a tonne of steel, €620 for a tonne of aluminium and even €3,700 for a tonne of copper.

The frequent lack of a paper trail has prompted the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Jackie Cahill, to call for tighter regulation. “It is literally an epidemic of theft. We’re talking about wholesale pillaging of farms, where we have groups arriving in vans and proceeding to steal whatever they want, or whatever they estimate they’ll be able to sell on. The reality is that all of this stolen scrap metal is being taken in by commercial recycling centres that are simply paying cash over the counter.”

Back in Cork, Denis O’Donovan got a call recently to do some emergency work on a housing estate near Midleton, replacing stolen road plates and manhole covers. “They were about to connect up water, and they had large manhole covers and a big tank on site. All were stolen for scrap value. It’s a miracle children weren’t killed,” O’Donovan says. “The problem boils down to the fact that you can turn up at any scrapyard and they will take goods from you with very few questions asked. It amounts to a licence to steal.”