Cable thieves jailed after phone outages

Three men have been jailed after stealing underground cables worth £50,000 - a crime that cut off phone and internet services for thousands of people in Birmingham.

Officers from West Midlands Police arrested the group at the scene in the city centre after alarms designed to detect tampering were triggered.

Marian Agarlita, 37, from the Isle of Wight, and Sorin Condrache, 45, and Aldafin Poenaru, 49, both of Montague Road in Smethwick, admitted theft and were each jailed for three years at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

Police said about 5,000 customers lost access to phone and broadband services as a result of the theft.

While the cables themselves were worth about £50,000, the cost of repairs and disruption ran far higher, police added.

PC Charlotte Gurrey, who led the investigation, said the thieves had carried out a planned and organised operation.

"The gang were clearly skilled, organised, and a significant amount of planning went into their efforts," she said.

She added that one of the men initially refused to come out from underground, raising safety concerns and the possibility of digging up part of the street.

"They showed a complete disregard for the knock on impact on communication within the city," she said, praising the swift response by officers and company Openreach which raised the alarm.

Openreach said the theft had caused "real harm", particularly for vulnerable people relying on phone and broadband services.

A spokesperson said repairs could take weeks and required engineers to be diverted from other work.

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