Two jailed for thefts behind rail chaos

Paul Blackburn and Simon Cannon appeared at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday after an investigation by British Transport Police.

Officers discovered evidence the men had been "burning off" the coating of the cabling in Blackburn's back garden in Rotherham, before weighing it in at a local scrapyard.

Sue Evans, prosecuting, told the court receipts from scrap merchants showed they had been handling cable for six months, between June and November 2008.

Ms Evans said the dates coincided with a period in which Rotherham suffered a spate of rail cable thefts which left track maintenance company Network Rail with a 118,000 bill and caused huge disruption.

Blackburn, 34, of Goldsmiths Road, Herringthorpe, Rotherham admitted handling 1,524m of cabling, with a value to Network Rail of 15,000. He sold it to scrap dealers for 2,148 and was jailed for 15 months.

Cannon, 40, of Park Road, East Dene, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to handling 658m, worth 6,500. The court was told he received 1,245 and he was jailed for nine months.

Iain Hillis, for Cannon, and Kevin Jones, for Blackburn, both told Judge Patrick Robertshaw that their unemployed clients had not been responsible for the theft and merely sold the cable.