£75k of stolen metal seized in scrapyard swoop

Stolen metal sheets worth more than £75,000 has been seized by police following a raid at a Black Country scrapyard.

Officers also discovered beer kegs and copper cables, which they suspect may also have been stolen, at the premises in Oldbury yesterday.

A police team from Dudley and Sandwell carried out a search of Oldbury Metals Recycling Ltd in Parsonage Street where they discovered the pile of flat metal sheets.

It is believed they had been stolen during a break-in at Midland Steel Sections in Dudley Road, Kingswinford, sometime between Saturday and Monday.

Two Leyland DAF trucks, worth £55,000 were also taken but these were later found abandoned on an industrial estate in Telford and have been returned to the firm undamaged.

A 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and theft. He was today released on bail pending further inquiries.

Managing director of Midland Steel Sections Alan Hawkins said it was a relief that a "substantial amount" of metal stolen from the firm had been recovered.

"We are not giving up on tracing the remainder and will continue to work with police.

"If this metal had not been recovered it would have left us out of pocket.

"We are a big firm but if metal is taken from a smaller business it can have very dire consequences on its trade. That is why metal theft is such a big problem."

Sgt Mike Wennen from Dudley police said: "We decided to join forces with Sandwell police, so inquiries could be made across a larger area of the local scrap metal industry.

"As a result of the warrant executed we recovered the large amount of metal sheets which have been positively identified as being the same metal sheets that were stolen from Midland Steel Sections last week.

"During the search we found other items that we suspect are also stolen."