THEFTS OF TELEPHONE CABLE REACH EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS IN BORDER REGION

Services to elderly and vulnerable disrupted by crime say Gardaí

Gardaí in Co Monaghan issued a public appeal yesterday for assistance in curbing the spate of telephone cable thefts which have afflicted the county and wider Border region in recent months. Sixty-six incidents of such thefts are currently being investigated by Gardaí in Cavan/Monaghan and in the Louth and Meath Garda Divisions. Garda Sergeant Michael Duffy, Crime Prevention Officer with the Cavan/Monaghan Garda Division, said yesterday that “this is not a victimless crime”.

He said that vital services to elderly and vulnerable people in rural communities, such as personal medical alarm pendants, were being disrupted by the thefts. The thieves steal the cable to access its valuable copper content and often discard the outer cable casing close to the crime scenes. Sergeant Duffy said that more than 1,500 households across the country had experienced disruption of telephone, internet and other services because of the crime but the problem was particularly acute in Cavan/Monaghan and other Border counties.

“This has not only resulted in significant loss to the affected telephone provider – in these cases Eir – but has also greatly impacted the public by way of telephone and internet service outages,” he stated. “So far these thefts have been mainly occurring in rural locations and it can take two to three days in some cases to restore phone and internet services to affected households. “These crimes have a detrimental effect on older, more vulnerable individuals living in rural communities as the loss of a phone service can significantly impact on their….