“This is an ongoing problem in the town centre,” he said.

“Top Shop has been done three times and numerous places on New Street have had this done to them at least once.

“Lloyds Bank has had it done more than once and KFC three or four times.

“Most of these businesses don’t really know what to do about this situation.”

Mr Downey called on Kirklees Council and West Yorkshire Police to do more to deal with the problem.

“There needs to be a partnership between police and the council,” he said.

“If somebody makes a complaint of damage to air conditioning units in the town centre, the police need to go out and do it the old-fashioned way – they need to take pictures and search for evidence. All you get is a phone call.

“There’s no pressure on the local council to look back at the CCTV to try to work out when the theft occurred and who the perpetrators are. That process is not being undertaken at all.”

Police said yesterday that enquiries were ongoing about the February 19 theft. Anyone with information can call officers on 101.

Earlier this year Kirklees became the first council in Yorkshire to introduce a voluntary code of conduct for scrap dealers to combat metal theft.

The code includes:

Metal will not be accepted from sellers whose identity can not be verified.

Suspicious customers and goods should be reported to the police.

Metals will not be accepted from customers arriving on foot or in taxis.

All scrap metal dealers agree to work towards installing CCTV camera systems to West Yorkshire Police standards.

Dealers agree to work towards implementing cashless payments systems within 12 months.

You can watch a video about the theft at www.examiner.co.uk.