A gang who stole £1 million worth of network cables have been jailed.
Billy Lee Junior, Levi Lee, Samuel Sheady-Jones and Ashley Byford targeted cable and plant material owned by BT Openreach.
This was in rural locations across Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and in Wrexham.
DI Fraser Low from Essex Police said: “This group may have thought they were acting under the radar and weren’t going to get caught."
The men would travel in 4x4 vehicles using false registration plates, to access manhole covers containing cable.
As a result of these actions thousands of customers lost service, including homes and businesses.
During one offence in Earith, Cambridgeshire, police arrived to find a 4x4 vehicle in a field with evidence of stolen cable around it.
When items in the vehicle were tested for prints officers were able to identify 24-year-old Billy Lee.
That work led to three others being identified: Levi Lee, 22, of Chivers Road, Stondon Massey, Samuel Sheady-Jones, 23, of Cefn Mawr, Wrexham, and Ashley Byford, 26, of Thames Avenue, Chelmsford.
In total the investigation team was able to link the group to 31 offences over a nine-month period.
In September 2022, officers scaled a wall outside Chivers Road, in Stondon Massey, Essex, and executed warrants at a number of properties.
Both Billy Lee Junior and Levi Lee were arrested and within Billy Lee’s property officers found a bag containing four large bundles of cash totalling £40,000.
Another £10,000 in cash was found in the same caravan with another £4,000 located in a box in nearby dog kennels.
Officers also found a winch and wire cutters, a Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4 and a Makita drill with a DNA match to Ashley Byford, who was subsequently arrested in Chelmsford.
The group was due to stand trial in September but entered guilty pleas and all admitted conspiracy to steal.
The were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, October 25.
Billy Lee Junior was sentenced to a total of four years and eight months in prison.
Levi Lee was sentenced to a total of four years and five months in prison.
Samuel Sheady-Jones was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison.
Ashley Byford admitted to counts of conspiring to steal and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Detective Inspector Frazer Low said: “This group caused widespread disruption, across a number of areas in England and Wales over a nine-month period.
“There was a significant impact on Openreach as a business totalling more than £650,000, which includes the cost of replacement of copper cable, materials, labour and any traffic management and civil engineering costs.
“There was also an indirect financial cost to the business and its customers, with 16,000 customer lines disrupted and I have absolutely no doubt that the offences caused vulnerable people to be cut off from family, friends and assistance in an emergency.”
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