POLICE swooped on scrap dealers yesterday to alert thieves to the fact that officers are keeping watch.
And they were delighted with the way metal dealers are responding to tougher legislation.
Partners in the week of action across West Yorkshire included Network Rail, Calor Gas and Customs officers.
The launch of Operation Tornado in West Yorkshire coincides with the progress on legislation in Parliament set to make the sale of stolen metal items much more difficult.
A Private Members Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, will require all scrap dealers to hold a licence and force metal sellers to produce ID when trying to sell scrap.
The Bill also calls for a national register of scrap metal dealers and will ban scrap being traded for cash-in-hand to help frustrate thieves.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “All of the dealers we visited had clearly been making efforts to comply with legislation.”
Speaking after the day of action in Dewsbury and Kirklees, Sgt Andrew Bentley said: “These visits follow on from Operation Galton in Kirklees in October in which arrests were made and significant amounts of scrap were seized.
“It’s been pleasing to see today that traders are both complying with legislation and making efforts to comply with it as well.
“We have made real progress in tackling metal theft this year and had some good results in tracing stolen metal back to its owners.
“When you consider that some of what is stolen is of sentimental value, this is really positive, he said.’’
