UK COMPUTERS STOLEN University reveals list of �40k stolen items - Cambridge News

University reveals list of £40k stolen items

stephen.exley@cambridge-news.co.uk

GOLD paperweights and a top hat are among items worth £40,000 stolen from Cambridge University over the last three years.

Information released to the News under the Freedom of Information Act reveals the university has been targeted by scrap metal thieves on more than 20 occasions since 2005, whose ill-gotten gains of lead, copper and steel were worth £10,700.

And 18 computers worth a total of £14,600 have also been taken from university promises during the three-year period.

A top hat worth £150 was stolen from a university constable during a congregation at Great St Mary's, the university church, in October 2007.

Three gold paperweights were taken from a property in Latham Road - where the official residence of vice chancellor Alison Richard is sited - during a burglary in April 2005.

Criminals have also struck at Kettle's Yard, the world-famous art gallery, on eight occasions, escaping with lead worth £3,500 from its roof.

Anglia Ruskin University told the News it did not have the full cost of all thefts from its East Road campus.

The news comes after it was revealed criminals cost Cambridgeshire schools £480,000 in insurance claims between 2005 and 2008.

A leap in theft of lead and copper due to spiralling metal prices saw the cost rise to more than £221,000 in 2007/08 - up from just £130,000 in each of the previous two years.

Cambridgeshire County Council has said the spate of thefts and vandalism has upset school pupils and disrupted their education.

The police crackdown on metal thefts in Cambridgeshire, Operation Saruman, has led to more than 70 arrests, with more than 250 vehicles stopped and searched since April.

Two offenders were recently jailed for stealing lead from church and school roofs.

Det Insp Andy Gipp, who leads the operation, said: "If people see anything suspicious, for example people driving around slowly looking at properties, knocking at doors asking for any metal or any other suspicious activity, they should call police."

A university spokesman said: "As a major employer and property owner in the city we are subject to crime which is why the university security section works closely with the police.

"It is notable that these crimes represent less than one per cent of total crime in Cambridge. Nonetheless, we remain vigilant and have assisted police to catch criminals."