At the beginning of April, phone lines went down in a small Cheshire town and hundreds of residents were cut off.

What happened in Frodsham, Cheshire was just the latest in a string of incidents which are causing huge problems across the county.

At the end of 2007 thieves targeted communications cables running to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, stealing 300 metres and crippling the site's telephone network for three days.

Gang raids on BT equipment are now becoming a common occurrence.  The criminals are breaking into the boxes and pulling through metres and metres of phone cabling from the next junction.

Someone jumps down a manhole, cuts the cable and then moves to a manhole down the road where the cable is cut again, the separated cable is tied to the car and pulled out from underground.

From telephone lines to high voltage cables and electricity sub-stations, thieves are stealing copper though  apparently the phone cables that are the most attractive are the old BT cables which also contain lead.

As global demand outstrips supply, thieves are prepared to risk their lives and endanger the lives of others.

Often it is seen as a victimless crime because it is business that has suffered the loss but the impact upon the community is where it really happens.

If there are residents in the parish with life lines. It is a matter of life or death.

Likewise if you need emergency services, how could you get hold of them? Calling 999 doesn't work.

Cheeky crooks who stripped £100,000 of copper and lead from a Lincoln pub have gone back for a second helping.

And Lincolnshire Police officers say the thieves will now be targeted as part of a citywide crackdown on metal theft.

In February landlord Mark Blakey was showing a prospective tenant around a pub when he walked in on thieves tearing it apart to loot its pipes.

The police attended the scene and told Mr Blakey that the crooks would probably be back. As predicted, the relentless thieves struck again  taking the lead out of the bay windows.

For centuries, people have stolen religious artifacts in Europe, including chunks of religious buildings, but Britain is in the midst of an accelerating crime wave that some experts call the most concerted assault on churches since the Reformation.

Lead was originally used in church roofs because it is very water resistant, particularly in exposed conditions.

It is still used today despite the expense because heritage organisations insist like must be replaced with like. Police believe the gangs use pulling equipment to wrench lead roofs and metal fittings off the churches and drive their haul away in trucks.

Insurers believe that six churches a day are being plundered by gangs in the UK who sell the lead on to China. More than 2,300 claims for damage to churches have been lodged with insurers amounting to £9 million over the past 12 months.

That compares to just 80 claims in 2005 involving a total of £330,000. Lead roofing is the usual plunder but statues, church bells and copper lightning conductors are also being taken. Experts believe that one church in eight has been affected, with rural areas most commonly targeted because there are likely to be fewer witnesses around.

Often they will return to target the same churches after they have been restored. But members of the public often fail to report the crimes because they think repair work is being carried out. Ecclesiastical Insurance is now supplying churches with a special chemical marker, called SmartWater, which is daubed on metal. Each batch is unique and allows recovered metal to be traced back to its owners.

Metal thieves have stolen bronze memorial vases from West Bromwich Crematorium, upsetting grieving families.

Council staff called police after realising the vases had gone missing from graves at the crematorium.

Bereavement services manager for Sandwell Council Brendan Day said: “Colleagues in other parts of the country have noticed an increase in thefts or bronze and other metal memorials following the rise in the value of metal.

Unfortunately it seems people will stoop to anything to make money and the bronze is quite valuable."

In November 2007 a one-and-a-half tonne bronze statue of a soldier was stolen from the South African War Memorial in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Thieves are thought to have used an angle grinder to cut the statue, which dates from 1899, from its plinth.

United Utilities have reported that vandalism is substations is a growing problem both as a result of anti social behavior and attempted theft of equipment.  Not only does this lead to the inconvenience of power cuts, it is incredibly dangerous.

In the past an electricity company received a huge fine when some gypsies were killed stealing copper.

Thieves in Merseyside are cutting gas pipes on houses, which is resulting in gas leaking out of cut pipes in built up residential areas.

Railway cable thieves were stopped in their tracks during a day-long crackdown by British Transport Police.  Using all the latest technology available to them, including ae microdrone – a small unmanned helicopter fitted with a live action camera – transport police managed to track down people suspected of being involved in cable theft.

Police activity was triggered by the rise in trackside cable theft, which is being driven by soaring prices of metal worldwide.

Lead’s price on global markets has rocketed sevenfold in the last six years, largely because of rising demand from industrializing countries like China and India. Centuries ago, its malleability made it a popular building material; now it is sought mainly for use in batteries for vehicles and backup power systems for computer and mobile phone networks. It is also used to make bullets and shot, cables and paints.

Lead prices reached a record of $3,900 a ton late last summer mainly because of supply problems from mines in Australia, consumer demand in China for cars and motorbikes, and speculation by hedge fund managers on volatile commodities markets, said William Adams, a metals analyst at BaseMetals.com in London.

The price has pulled back since, trading at about $2,750 a ton, he said, but it could climb again on continuing supply problems and steady Chinese demand.

One of the oddest consequences of the historically high price is that idyllic corners of Britain — a nation that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution — are suddenly feeling the strain of Asia’s industrialization.

Driven by demand in China, the international price of copper and lead has broken all records over recent months. Because of a global shortage the price of copper has risen 70% in two years to around £4,200 a tonne. .  Every month about £18m worth of copper scrap passes through UK ports to China alone. It is moved in bulk or transported in containers.

Prices for zinc, nickel and aluminium are also at their highest since 1996. Police believe the rising price of metal around the world has now made theft so profitable that criminal gangs are being attracted away from other crimes.
Opportunist thieves are simply turning up at scrap yards with stolen metal in shopping trolleys or wheelbarrows and walking away with a pocketful of cash.

Pictures of known thieves have been sent to scrap metal dealers and taxi drivers in a bid to stamp out metal thefts in East Lancashire.

Scrap dealers have been warned not to buy metal from anyone listed on the rogues gallery or anybody who seems suspicious. Taxi drivers have also been warned not to pick up people carrying large amounts of the metal.

Thieves stole and scrapped a man's classic car after he had died.  The vintage Daimler Sovereign was taken from his partner’s  drive - and sold  for £60 scrap.
Ms Hopkins said the car, valued at £4,000, was priceless to her because of the memories it held.

Her partner of 11 years, Robert Penny, known locally as Harley Bob, had been working on the car for six years.

Helen says: Metal theft is major crime that has potentially serious economic consequences for the country and negatively impacts on communities in many ways. It is certainly not a victimless crime.