TWO people in their 40s and a teenager have been sentenced for stealing metal drain covers from Bexley’s roads.

Caleb Darling, aged 49 and Lisa Parmenter, aged 40, both of Dexter House, Kale Road, Thamesmead, were found guilty of theft in January after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

The court heard how a vigilant member of the public spotted two men trying to lift a drain cover from the gutter in Lanridge Road, Abbey Wood in the early hours of August 12 last year.

The resident also saw a nearby parked lorry loaded with a bath and other scrap and called police.

As a result, two police officers stopped a green flatbed Leyland DAF lorry in nearby Kale Road, Thamesmead and searched the back of the lorry.

In it they found seven drain covers belonging to Bexley Council and valued at £1,750.

Darling, Parmenter and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons were arrested on suspicion of theft and Parmenter was also arrested for possession of controlled drugs.

All three appeared before Bexley magistrates where Parmenter was fined £50 with £60 costs after pleading guilty to drugs possession.

The teenager pleaded guilty to theft and received an 18-month youth referral order and a three-month curfew.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court on February 18, Darling was jailed for 10 months for theft .

Parmenter was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for 12-months and was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.

Cabinet member for community affairs, Councillor Katie Perrior said: "Stealing items like drain covers places all of us in danger and puts an extra burden on hard-pressed taxpayers.

"I am pleased that the people responsible have been found guilty and hope the sentences will discourage others from engaging in similar criminal behaviour."

Joint operation targets possible thieves

POTENTIAL metal thieves were targeted in another joint operation by neighbourhood and traffic police, Bexley Council, BT and SmartWater rechnology.

Nearly 100 vehicles were stopped over four days and 36 of them were prosecuted.

Ten were were uninsured and not licensed to carry waste received £200 penalty tickets, fined £300, received six points on their driving licences and had their vehicles seized.

One man was arrested on suspicion of stealing electrical cable and another was detained for immigration offences.

Six other drivers were fined and given points on their licence for using mobile phones while driving.

Erith Safer Neighbourhoods police sergeant James Coomber said similar operations, which financially penalise those who illegally transport metal, would continue.

He said there had been a sharp increase in thefts of metal across the borough as the price on world-wide markets had soared.

Sergeant Coomber added: “Thieves have been targeting lead flashing from roofs and porches in the Thamesmead area.”

He appealed to residents not to leave ladders, bins or anything which could gove thieves access to porches and roofs.