HUNDREDS of homes were left without telephone or internetconnections when Pounds 30,000 of damage was caused to undergroundcables in a botched theft.
It happened at about 8pm on Tuesday, February 1, when a manholecover was lifted in Church Road, between Temple Lane and PettitLane, Cressing.
A cable was then cut in a crime which was labelled as "foolishand potentially dangerous".
A British Telecom spokeswoman said: "It can pose problems forpeople who are left without a line. Nothing was stolen in this case,but it just caused tremendous disruption to people in the village."
Restored It is thought that engineers had services restored toall homes that were affected by the end of Sunday.
Problems of cable theft have escalated nationwide in recentmonths because of the rising price of scrap metal.
District councillor James Abbott said : "There have been twoincidents around here where heavily insulated cable has been dumped,I think probably electricity cable.
"The metal was stripped out and the insulation left so this typeof theft is going on in the area and it causes so muchinconvenience."
BT's Openreach division has already begun a major new initiativeagainst this with the deployment of SmartWater, an invisiblesolution which can be used to forensically tag metal and protect thetelecoms network.
Openreach head of security Bernie Auguste said: "From now on, anycriminal who targets the BT network risks being invisibly taggedwith Smart-Water, meaning that the police can trace them, and anystolen cable or equipment, back to the scene of the crime.
"SmartWater is a highly sophisticated forensic marking liquidthat is unique to a particular location.
Mark "It will be used to mark the outer shell and inner core ofOpenreach cable, along with tools and other equipment."
Police are appealing for anyone with information about the latestcrime to contact officers at Witham station on 0300 3334444, or callCrimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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