Railway contractor jailed for conspiracy

A Railway contractor from Warrington was part of a gang who stole track and railway sleepers worth up to £1.5m from Network Rail – depriving the company of valuable funds which could have been re-invested in the network.
Terry Doherty, 48, of Rushton Close, Burtonwood, Warrington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal from the West Coast Mainline and Manchester Metrolink.
He was sentenced to two years six months for West Coast Mainline offences and 21 months for Metrolink offences, with both sentences to run concurrently.
Doherty was part of a gang of five men, who abused their position as railway contractors to steal up to £1.5m of track and railway sleepers from Network Rail, who were jailed for a total of 11 years 9 months.
Two other men were also given a total of 21 months suspended sentences for their involvement.
Doherty was sentenced alongside John Burtenshaw, Neil Jones, Stuart Amphlett, Nicky Halloran, Paul Tandon and Roy Skinner at Birmingham Crown Court, yesterday, Monday.
The court heard the group had looked to exploit the maintenance and upgrade work being carried out by Network Rail on the West Coast Mainline in and around Rugby.
Doherty, a co-director of BRP (Rugby) Ltd – sub-contracted by Jarvis to remove rail, conspired with John Burtenshaw, Jarvis plant manager, to steal rail and sleepers which should have been taken to authorised recyclers with Network Rail receiving the value of the metal. Doherty also conspired with Stuart Amphlett to steal rail from the
Manchester Metrolink project.
A lengthy investigation carried out by British Transport Police revealed Doherty and Burtenshaw used their position, and others within the rail sub-contract industry, to steal up to 3,500 tonnes of rail worth up to £1.5m.
The actions of the group first came to BTP’s attention in August 2008 when a scrap dealer check in Staffordshire revealed 208 tonnes of rail which was identified as having been removed from Rugby upgrade project.
From this initial find, and with the assistance of the owners of the scrap dealer, BTP officers followed evidential trails which implicated Jones and Tandon (supervisors with Vital, but sub-contracted to Jarvis), Halloran (a scrap metal recycler) and Amphlett, (a logistics manager with Carillion).
Detective Sergeant Chris Hearn said: “Using various techniques we were able to track the movement of some of the stolen rail to scrap dealers in Birmingham, Bedfordshire and Liverpool.
“Enquiries at these dealers revealed more than 500 tonnes of rail had been moved by the conspirators who were paid more than £71,500.
“Further investigation revealed a total of 3,500 tonnes of rail and other metal equipment from the Rugby project was unaccounted for, with a potential value of almost £1.5million.
“There is no doubt that the actions of this organised group deprived Network Rail and, in turn rail users across the country, of valuable finance which could have been put towards maintenance and improvements.
“This case clearly shows just how damaging metal theft is to communities and, particularly, to the rail industry. But it also demonstrates just how determined BTP is to tackle those who perceive the railway to be a soft target.”
Neil Henry, Network Rail’s head of operations and performance, said: “The value of the material stolen is wasted money as far as Network Rail is concerned. That’s £1.5m that could otherwise have been spent on additional passenger facilities at stations or perhaps invested in technology to improve reliability of the railway.
“I also welcome the news of a thorough reform of the laws governing scrap metal dealers. Metal thieves directly cost the railway around £19million each year, with the knock on costs and disruption to the economy around the same amount again.”