UK HARD DRIVES STOLEN FROM COMPUTERS AT CHARITABLE PROJECT FACILITY Forres Gazette: Vandals strike at Wastebusters:
Vandals strike at Wastebusters
Published: 17 January, 2007

MORAY Wastebusters were left counting the cost of damage last Thursday night after thieves broke into the charitable project, vandalised their premises and stole money and a number of valuable tools.

Project manager, James Tidey, phoned the 'Gazette' on Friday morning to let people know that the project would be closed for a day or so to allow for a clean-up.

He said that the damage to the premises, which stand on the council-run Waterford amenity site, was so extensive, with a number of doors being ripped off their hinges and ruined, that it was difficult to estimate quite how much it would cost and and how long it would take to carry out repairs and replace items stolen from the tool shed.

'We are having to close to the public in order to get straight again,' he said. 'Some of the damage that was done was just mindless vandalism.'

Mr Tidey said that the damage was discovered at around 8am on Friday when staff arrived for work. Grampian Police were immediately alerted, and scenes of crime officers spent most of Friday morning gathering evidence.

This is not the first time that the pioneering recycling project has been targeted. Thieves broke into the portable building at the premises around two years ago, stole what they could carry away, and vandalised the premises.

Mr Tidey said that on this occasion doors were smashed or forced open, and even the polytunnel, where houshold items which have been donated are kept to be sold on at low cost, had been broken into and trashed.

Mr Tidey said that the vandals had managed to access the control panel of the security lights and turn them off to avoid detection.

"I find it hard to believe that it is just youngsters who could have done this," he said. "I think adults had a hand in this. The door was secured with three locks, and they managed to break all of them, kick open the door and then trash the office."

He said that although the computers had not been stolen, the thieves had removed the hard drives, then left them. They broke into the tool shed and stole a number of items including small hand tools and an electrical device.

"They even went into our locked library and video store," he said. "They ripped a load of books off the shelves and threw them around the floor."

He said security cameras had been ripped off the roof and some damage had been done to the garden area created by trainees with recycled materials donated at the amenity site.

"They even ripped off big double shed doors," he said. "It was just pointless. I don't know how long it's going to take to tidy up."

A police spokesman said that it was a particularly "callous crime", as it had been carried out against a charitable organisation.

"There were a number of buildings on the site, such as garage workshops and sheds," he said. "They were all broken into."

He confirmed that a three-figure sum of cash was stolen, as well as a number of other items including tools.

Moray Council condemned those responsible for the "senseless" break-in. A spokesman said that a number of council waste facilities have been broken into over the years, despite stringent security measures.

"One has to question the motives of someone who wants to break in and steal what was once someone's waste," said a spokesman. "Moray Wastebusters, like most charitable and voluntary organisations involved in the waste sector, often struggle to 'balance the books' without this sort of attack."

He said they were assisting police and Moray Wastebusters in their investigations, and would do everything they could to help the charity get back into operation.

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