Cable thieves who disrupted internet for thousands are jailed

A cable theft gang who disrupted phone and internet services to thousands of customers have been jailed for a total of 14 years.
The gang stole miles of BT Openreach copper cables valued at nearly £1m from rural locations across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex as well as Wrexham.
Essex Police said brothers Billy Lee Junior and Levi Lee, together with Samuel Sheady-Jones and Ashley Byford travelled in 4×4 vehicles with fake plates.
They would open manhole covers and winch miles of cables out of the ground using the vehicles to drag them free.
As a result, thousands of homes and businesses lost their internet and phone connection.
The court heard their offending meant a loss to BT and other victims of more than £750,000, though police said the wider costs were hard to estimate and could have been far higher.
The breakthrough for police came when they discovered a 4×4 vehicle at Earith in Cambridgeshire with evidence of stolen cable around it.
When items in the vehicle were forensically tested, officers were able to link them with 24-year-old Billy Lee from Stondon Massey in Essex.
Further investigations led to three others in the gang being identified.
They were Levi Lee, 22, of Chivers Road, Stondon Massey, Samuel Sheady-Jones, 23, of Cefn Mawr, Wrexham, and Ashley Byford, 26, of Thames Avenue, Chelmsford.
In total the investigation team was able to link the group to 31 offences over a nine-month period.
The gang were arrested after police climbed over a wall and raided a caravan site at Stondon Massey near Brentwood in September 2022.
Both Billy Lee Junior and Levi Lee were arrested.
Officers found a bag in Billy Lee’s caravan containing four large bundles of cash totalling £40,000. Another £10,000 in cash was found in the same caravan whilst £4,000 was discovered hidden in nearby dog kennels.
Officers also found a winch and wire cutters, a Mitsubishi Shogun 4×4 and a Makita drill.
Forensic examination of the handle of the drill provided a DNA match to Ashley Byford, who was subsequently arrested in Chelmsford.
The group were due to stand trial in September but instead entered guilty pleas and all admitted conspiracy to steal.
They were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday 25 October.
Billy Lee Junior was sentenced to a total of four years and eight months in prison.
His brother Levi Lee was sentenced to a total of four years and five months in prison.
Samuel Sheady-Jones was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison.
Ashley Byford admitted to counts of conspiring to steal and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Det Insp Frazer Low said: “This group caused widespread disruption, across a number of areas in England and Wales, over a nine-month period.
“There was a significant impact on Openreach as a business totalling more than £650,000, which includes the cost of replacement of copper cable, materials, labour and any traffic management and civil engineering costs.
“There was also an indirect financial cost to the business and its customers, with 16,000 customer lines disrupted and I have absolutely no doubt that the offences caused vulnerable people to be cut off from family, friends and assistance in an emergency.”
Emma Sandison, Openreach Security Director, said: “Cable thefts are hugely disruptive. The loss of phone and broadband is not only inconvenient but can put vulnerable people at risk. Repair work also pulls our engineers away from other work, can take weeks to finish, and costs thousands of pounds.”
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