COAL THIEVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 December 1934, Page 3

COAL THIEVES

£250,000 WORTH VANISHES. Coal stealing on a huge scale by gaflgs of thieves is costing South Wales coalowners £250,000 a year. This disconcerting fact, revealed during investigations, is causing great concern to the railway authorities and police in many areas of South Wales and Monmouthshire. Hundreds of people have lately been before the Welsh police courts charged with the theft of coal from wagons and railway sidings. The thefts are often individually trifling, but in the aggregate they amount to thousands of tons. These thefts are almost negligible when compared to the extensive and highly profitable racket conducted by organised gangs. The railways companies have spent thousands of pounds in providing extra guards to trap the racketeers who, nevertheless, still manage to get away with huge quantities of loot. They confine their activities chiefly to coal wagons in transit, and invariably work at night time. Coal trains moving from the mining villages to the docks have to negotiate many stiff gradients, and it is when the speed is decreased almost to a crawl on these gradients that the racketeers get to work. Certain members of the gang beard the train and throw overboard large chunks of coal. Before the train has finished climbing the gradient they jump off and load the coal into lorries. How the raiders dispose of their haul is not known, but it is believed that they have a ready market among unscrupulous dealers who pay the raiders a cut price and then sell the coal for domestic use at a handsome profit. A determined effort is being made by the coal-owners, railway authorities, and police to track down the racketeers, by the appointment of extra guards and the use of surprise tactics in areas which are suitable for the operations of the gangs.