Headaches from metal thieves

Bridgetown.

Metal thieves in Barbados are causing headaches for utility companies says Commissioner of Police, Darwin Dottin.

"For several months now, we in the Police Force have spoken about the difficulty of metal theft, particulary copper.It has reached the stage where some of the utility companies have started to complain that metal theft has started to have an effect on their operations", says Dottin.

"We have arrested some persons for stealing copper and some of them have been convicted for this offence.The Attorney General has spoken recently about the need to improve the legislation to deal with this operation, because the statute on the book is very old", he added.

"Penalties are derisory, so new pieces of legislation will have to be prepared to deal with the problems of metal theft", the Commissioner stressed.