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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 12:00 pm
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Results for scrap metal theft
5 results foundAuthor: Morgan, Nick Title: An evaluation of government/law enforcement interventions aimed at reducing metal theft Summary: Executive summary - While most acquisitive crimes have fallen consistently over the past five years, metal theft increased between 2009 and 2011 in line with a sharp rise in global metal prices. It then fell during 2012 and 2013. - This paper summarises results of analyses which aimed to test whether the decline from 2012 was caused primarily by the government/law enforcement interventions launched to address metal theft, or was simply due to metal prices falling back from their peak. - The analysis is based mainly on data for metal thefts held by the Energy Networks Association (ENA), though data from British Transport Police (BTP) are also used to verify the main results. The phased roll-out of Operation Tornado across England and Wales helps to identify the specific impact of the interventions, as distinct from other factors that might have contributed to the fall in metal thefts. - The analysis found that metal thefts recorded by the Energy Networks Association and by British Transport Police fell to levels far lower during 2012 and 2013 than would be expected from the drop in metal prices alone. - This implies that the interventions launched during that period, Operation Tornado and cashless trading at scrap metal dealers (described below), did contribute to a substantial reduction in the number of offences. - Analysis showed a large, statistically significant effect for the interventions even when controlling for metal prices and other factors driving acquisitive crime. - Scotland, which did not receive the interventions, had a rising trend in metal theft during the post-intervention period, according to the Energy Networks Association data. This adds further weight to the main finding, and suggests that some metal theft may have been displaced north of the border. - As with most retrospective evaluations, there are necessary limitations with both the data and the methodology employed, but these findings are in line with the limited existing evidence from other nations. Details: London: Home Office, 2015. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Report 80: Accessed January 28, 2015 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398511/horr80.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398511/horr80.pdf Shelf Number: 134480 Keywords: Crime PreventionMetal Theft (U.K.)Property Theft Scrap Metal Theft Stealing |
Author: Victoria Police Title: Addressing profit-motivated vehicle theft in Victoria's separated parts and scrap metal industries Summary: 1. The inter-agency Task Force Discover was established to examine how the motor wrecking and scrap metal industries may facilitate profit-motivated vehicle theft (PMVT). Led by Victoria Police Crime Command, the Task Force completed a state-wide regulatory audit of motor wreckers and scrap metal dealers to reconcile anecdotal evidence that regulatory non-compliance by these businesses creates opportunities for PMVT. The Task Force aimed to develop an objective understanding of the extent of regulatory compliance among motor wreckers and scrap metal dealers and consider how levels of non-compliance related to unrecovered stolen vehicles in Victoria. 2. PMVT is a significant problem in Victoria. Data from the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council demonstrates there were 2,562 unrecovered stolen passenger and light commercial (PLC) vehicles in Victoria in 2013. The number of unrecovered PLC vehicles in Victoria has increased 21 per cent over the last five years due to the ability of vehicle thieves to profit from the growing domestic and international demand for spare parts and scrap metal. This demand has led to an expansion in the motor wrecking and scrap metal industries1, which now comprise a variety of players displaying an equally diverse range of capital resources, experience and levels of compliance with the law. Vehicle thieves can subsequently exploit the noncompliant tiers of industry to off-load, launder and sell stolen vehicles for the value of their separated parts and left over scrap metal. 3. Between September 2013 and June 2014, Task Force Discover audited a total of 432 motor wreckers and scrap metal dealers, estimated to represent approximately 90 percent of all operators in Victoria. The Task Force audited all commercial practices supporting the trade in used vehicles, spare parts and scrap metal derived from vehicles in order to: - collect intelligence on compliant and non-compliant commercial practices; - complete an authoritative assessment on the overall extent of regulatory compliance and consider implications that levels of non-compliance have for levels of PMVT in Victoria; and - improve the understanding of issues associated with the motor wrecking and scrap metal industries, including occupational health and safety (OHS) and environmental protection issues. 4. The Task Force Discover audit focussed firstly on business licensing with a Motor Car Traders Licence (MCTL), business registration with Second-Hand Dealers Registration (SHDR) and record keeping practices for the trade in vehicles due to the implications that noncompliance in these areas has for PMVT. Secondly the audit focussed on occupational health and safety and environmental protection standards for the trade in parts and scrap due to the implications that non-compliance in these areas has for community harm. Task Force investigators (comprising Victoria Police detectives) made an assessment of the regulatory compliance of each business they attended. Of the 432 motor wreckers and scrap metal dealers audited: - 302 businesses or 70 per cent were assessed by Task Force investigators as either not holding the required authorisation to trade (i.e. the correct licence or registration) or being non-compliant to some degree with the conditions of their business licence or registration. This non-compliance included: - incomplete record keeping on customer identities and vehicle identifiers - failing to make notifications to the Written-Off Vehicles Register (WOVR) - failing to undertake criminal history checks and background screening of employees, and - failing to publicly display business licensing or registration details. - 199 businesses or 46 per cent were assessed as not holding the required authorisation to trade and of these: - 112 businesses operated without a MCTL or SHDR, but were assessed as requiring a MCTL - 12 businesses operated without a MCTL or SHDR, but were assessed as requiring a SHDR - 75 businesses traded only with a SHDR, but were assessed as requiring a MCTL. - 398 businesses or 92 per cent did not submit notifications to the WOVR. - 390 businesses or 90 per cent were assessed to be non-compliant to some degree with OHS and environmental protection regulations - 82 businesses or almost 20 per cent were referred for safety breaches deemed likely to cause injury; and - 41 businesses or 9 per cent were referred for moderate environmental breaches causing obvious and ongoing serious pollution to soil and waterways. Details: Melbourne: Victoria Police, 2014. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 29, 2015 at: http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?a=internetBridgingPage&Media_ID=108408 Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?a=internetBridgingPage&Media_ID=108408 Shelf Number: 135419 Keywords: Automobile TheftMotor Vehicle TheftScrap Metal TheftStolen Vehicles |
Author: DLA Piper Title: Review of Regulation of Separated Parts Markets in Australia Summary: This report examines the legislation that applies to the trade in separated motor vehicle parts throughout Australia. The report is prepared against a background of growing concern that existing regulatory arrangements are not optimally effective for combatting criminal involvement in the vehicle and vehicle parts trades. The current regulatory arrangements comprise a multiplicity of legislative schemes regulating motor car traders, vehicle repairers and second hand dealers. While other laws apply to the separated parts trades (including laws relating to written-off vehicles, and general consumer protection and criminal laws), the focus of this report is on the schemes that most closely regulate the conduct of persons carrying on business of buying and selling used vehicle parts. Most of these schemes are licensing schemes. Persons must hold the appropriate licences in order to carry on the business. To do so they must meet various criteria to show they are fit and proper persons. They must continue to meet those criteria, and comply with licence conditions and other requirements or risk having their licence suspended or cancelled. The basic model is similar in all jurisdictions. However, the legislation is far from being uniform or consistent. Different schemes have different regulatory objectives. The extent to which they apply to the trade in vehicle parts varies considerably. In some jurisdictions, persons dealing in vehicle parts are regulated as motor traders and in others as general second hand dealers. Licensing criteria differ, as do the conditions and requirements that apply to the conduct of the business. In some jurisdictions the trade in separated parts is subject to stringent and extensive regulatory controls while in others it is effectively unregulated. In summary, the position in each of the jurisdictions appears to be: - New South Wales is the only jurisdiction with legislation specifically targeting both vehicle repairers and motor traders operating as auto dismantlers and motor vehicle reconstructors. - Victoria. The trade in whole vehicles, including dismantled vehicle shells, is regulated under the motor dealer legislation while the trade in vehicle parts and accessories is regulated under the second hand dealers legislation. - Queensland. Persons who break up or re-assemble vehicles are required to be licensed as motor dealers while suppliers of separated parts are regulated as second hand dealers. - South Australia. Traders in complete and working vehicles are regulated under the motor dealers legislation while those involved in the trade in wrecked vehicles, vehicle shells and vehicle spares are regulated as second hand dealers. - Western Australia. Licensing requirements apply to persons who dismantle whole vehicles and to repairers who purchase separated parts for repair work. Persons who trade solely in separated vehicle parts appear to be unregulated. - Tasmania. Second hand motor dealers are required to be licensed as motor dealers and second-hand dealers. Vehicle dismantlers and parts sellers must notify police under the second-hand dealer legislation. - Australian Capital Territory. Vehicle dismantlers and constructors who sell, buy or exchange separated parts are licensed under motor repairer legislation, but intermediaries in the supply of separated vehicle parts appear to be unregulated. - Northern Territory. Persons trading in whole vehicles are required to hold a motor dealers licence, although motor wreckers appear not to be. Persons who buy, sell or exchange second hand parts are required to hold a second hand dealers licence. In this report we outline the main elements of the State and Territory schemes, based on a review of the relevant legislation. This analysis indicates that New South Wales has, particularly in its Motor Dealers Act 1974, the most robust licensing regime. Nevertheless, it is possible that the current uneven and inconsistent regulatory coverage is providing opportunities for criminal involvement in the separated parts trades. If that is so, there may be a case for nationally consistent regulatory reform. Further research is needed about the impact of the current patchwork approach, to assess whether there would be net benefits in a national regulatory approach. The report then considers the legislative mechanisms available to regulatory agencies under the present schemes. It looks at how the different legislative frameworks set out controls over the right to carry on second hand parts related businesses, the powers available for monitoring and overseeing those businesses, the penalties and sanctions available for operating outside the scheme and for breaching scheme requirements and the compliance and enforcement powers available to deal with breaches. Because the legislative schemes are very diverse, this analysis is necessarily high level. It also tends to focus on the provisions which appear to provide the most effective and robust set of regulatory controls, the majority of which are to be found in NSW legislation. The final part of the report looks at mechanisms in other regulatory environments that may be able to be adopted or adapted to improve the effectiveness of regulation of the separated parts market. This analysis proceeds from consideration of two key concepts which underpin many contemporary regulatory strategies: - an enforcement pyramid of progressively more severe interventions to enable regulators to take action that responds appropriately and cost effectively to non-compliant behaviour; and - a chain of responsibility liability model, which imposes a legal responsibility on all parties with the motive and/or capacity to influence compliance outcomes. In this context we describe a range of interventions and orders that may be applied to the regulation of the separated parts market, including civil penalties, administrative improvement and prohibition notices, court based directions and interventions, forfeiture and commercial benefits penalties, prohibition and industry exclusion and directors and officers liability for corporate fault. The focus of this discussion is on legislative compliance and enforcement measures. However, it must be recognised that these are only a part of an overall compliance framework. Co-operative engagement with the regulated entities, clearly articulated and consistently followed intervention policies and sufficient skilled and properly resourced enforcement personnel are also critical for effective regulation of any business activity. Details: North Melbourne, VIC: National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council, 2013. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 23, 2016 at: http://carsafe.com.au/assets/ModernisingRegulatoryRegimesDLAPiper.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Australia URL: http://carsafe.com.au/assets/ModernisingRegulatoryRegimesDLAPiper.pdf Shelf Number: 138789 Keywords: Automobile Theft Motor Vehicle Theft Scrap Metal Theft Stolen Vehicles |
Author: Kirchmaier, Tom Title: Prices, Policing and Policy: The Dynamics of Crime Booms and Busts Summary: In many historical episodes, the extent of criminal activity has displayed booms and busts. One very clear example is the case of metal crime, where in the face of big increases in value driven by world commodity prices, the incidence of metal thefts in the UK (and elsewhere) rose very sharply in the 2000s. Early in the current decade, they fell sharply again. This paper studies the roles of prices, policing and policy in explaining these crime dynamics. The empirical analysis shows sizeable and significant metal crime-price elasticities, in line with the idea that changing economic returns do shape crime. However, the rapid upward and downward trends are not only due to price changes. Their temporal evolution is also explained by changes in policing and policy. On the former, a difference-in-differences approach is used to document an important role of policing as a consequence of an anti-metal crime operation introduced in 2012. On the latter, the introduction of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 is exploited to study the impact of policy on the economic activity of scrap metal dealers in England and Wales. Results from our difference-in-differences specification suggest that the tougher regulatory system introduced by the policy hindered the economic activity of pre-existing dealers, reflecting the reduced market size for potential metal criminals to sell what they have stolen. Details: Unpublished paper, 2018. 49p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=3149413 Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=3149413 Shelf Number: 150107 Keywords: Metal TheftProperty TheftScrap Metal TheftStealing |
Author: New Jersey. Commission of Investigation Title: Corrupt Commerce: Heroin, Thievery and the Underground Trade in Stolen Goods Summary: In two years, he burned through an $800,000 inheritance, lost his home and allowed his family business to die. Desperate and broke, he found a lucrative new way to fund the heroin addiction that consumed his fortune and his life: stolen metal. He tore wire and copper pipe from buildings. He heaved manhole covers from the streets, ripped storm drains from parking lots, pulled heavy metal pins from construction barriers. Then, in an old sedan weighed down nearly to the pavement, he routinely took his haul to a booming scrap yard linked to organized crime in Hillsborough, Somerset County. There, the owner and employees readily bought the stolen metal for cash, no questions asked, not a word to the police. A hundred miles to the south, a young woman hit upon her own way to remedy the dopesickness that dictated her daily rhythms. She led a crew that shoplifted more than $100,000 in goods from major retail chains, then returned the items for gifts cards in the amount of the stolen merchandise. She sold those cards for 50 cents on the dollar to willing businesses across South Jersey. Again, no questions asked, no alert about suspicious behavior. The State Commission of Investigation has found that these circumstances are emblematic of a corrupt and enduring commerce in New Jersey's lightly regulated and often lawless world of scrap yards, pawn shops, cash-for-gold outlets and secondhand goods operations. Driven largely by the heroin and opioid epidemic, this shadowy underground economy is being exploited for profit across the state by convicted felons and elements of organized crime. In business after business, Commission investigators identified owners and employees with extensive criminal histories, including convictions for fraud, burglary, receiving stolen property, assault, firearms violations, narcotics distribution and racketeering. The SCI found evidence of drug-dealing directly from the counter at one shop, the illegal sale of handguns at another and links to a mob-related loansharking scheme at a third. At those locations and others, investigators found that owners and employees regularly accepted stolen goods, from jewelry to power tools, and in some cases directed customers to steal in-demand items likely to maximize profits upon resale. Collectively, the Commission estimates, the businesses have bought and sold tens of millions of dollars in stolen goods in recent years. This thriving marketplace, operating with little oversight or accountability, incentivizes theft and promotes destructive acts against both public and private infrastructure, putting residents in jeopardy. The widespread plundering of copper wiring and heavy-duty backup batteries from cell phone towers undermines cellular service during power outages. The theft of wire that transmits signals along train tracks delays commuters, requires costly repairs and strains an already overtaxed transit system. The removal of electricity-conducting wire from utility substations compromises the power grid. Little is off limits. Scrap hunters have ripped the risers from bleachers at schools, made off with aluminum street lamps from highways and stolen bronze vases from graves. The enormous costs of the illicit bargain between thieves and unscrupulous owners are borne by all New Jerseyans: the ratepayers who see higher bills for cell service and electricity; the consumers who pay more for goods at retail stores; the taxpayers ultimately responsible for replacing infrastructure that has vanished in the night. By providing an easy route for drug addicts and opportunists to cash in on stolen metal and merchandise, these enterprises have helped spawn an endless cycle of theft, one that law enforcement cannot keep pace with, much less end, without a muscular response from the State. The Commission carried out this investigation in keeping with its 50-year-old statutory mandate to identify and expose corruption, to highlight government laxity and gaps in oversight, to determine the effectiveness of New Jersey's laws and to inform the Governor, the Legislature, the Attorney General and the public about the influence and intrusion of organized crime. In particular, the findings set forth in this report build upon groundbreaking investigative work dating back nearly a decade when the SCI became one of the first agencies of government to identify the burgeoning opioid and heroin epidemic. Over the course of this inquiry, SCI investigators issued scores of subpoenas, analyzed banking records and conducted more than 100 interviews with law enforcement officers, metal recyclers, state and municipal officials, representatives of the telecommunications and retail industries, and the owners and employees of outfits engaged in suspect or illegal behavior. Just as significantly, the SCI interviewed those with the clearest view of interactions with these businesses: the addicts and former addicts who carried out thefts for drug money. SCI agents also conducted surveillance at suspect establishments and, in cooperation with police departments and confidential sources, participated in sting operations at scrap yards and secondhand goods stores. In those cases, items purchased by the Commission or lawfully obtained from utilities, phone companies and retail stores were sold to owners or employees with the fictive understanding the items had been stolen. The inquiry found that state and municipal regulations governing these businesses are scattershot, inadequate and unevenly enforced. The State licenses traditional pawn shops, which provide collateral-based loans, while municipalities license cash-for-gold shops, secondhand goods stores and scrap yards. Ordinances vary widely in strength and effectiveness from municipality to municipality. Laws governing some aspects of the businesses have proven to be window dressing, too minimal in scope and so erratically enforced they have failed to deter the prodigious flow of stolen goods. Equally troubling, SCI investigators found that many owners regularly flout the few rules that apply to them with little or no consequence. In some towns, the Commission found, law enforcement officials were unaware their governing bodies had passed ordinances giving police the means to crack down on the businesses - a breakdown in communication and coordination that has sapped accountability. The Commission is mindful that pawn outlets, secondhand goods stores and scrap metal recyclers contribute to the tax base in their communities and provide services helpful to the public. Local scrap yards are building blocks in the international commerce of recycled metal. In addition, not all owners and employees operate flagrantly outside the bounds of decency and the law. But in the absence of meaningful oversight, far too many of these operations have been subverted by criminal activity. The Commission recommends the State take the lead in licensing and regulating these industries. As the Legislature in recent decades has moved to root out organized crime from New Jersey's trash-hauling companies and casinos, so, too, should the State ban mob associates and those with extensive criminal records from trades that remain obvious and attractive pathways for the disposal of stolen property. Further, the Commission recommends requiring owners and employees to record all transactions in an online database accessible by law enforcement. Two such databases are already in use in neighboring states and in a minority of New Jersey municipalities, allowing investigators to more efficiently track sales, identify trends, find stolen merchandise and hold dishonest owners and employees accountable. Details: Trenton: The Commission, 2018. 108p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 21, 2018 at: https://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/Stolen%20Goods%20Report%20Final.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/Stolen%20Goods%20Report%20Final.pdf Shelf Number: 150626 Keywords: Illegal TradeMetal TheftNarcoticsOpioid CrisisOrganized CrimeScrap Metal TheftStolen GoodsStolen PropertyTrafficking in NarcoticsUnderground Economy |