Crooks nab everything from books to boilers

Published on Friday 20 August 2010 18:56

THEY range from the serious to the downright bizarre.

The list of items which have gone missing from council offices in the Lothians has been revealed - and includes everything from expensive computers to parts for a vacuum cleaner.

While Edinburgh City Council mainly reported the loss of IT equipment - 22,000 worth in total - in West Lothian book crime seemed to be the biggest drain on local authority resources. The council there listed 5000 library books - worth 55,000 - as missing or stolen.

Other unusual items to go missing included a 50 foam gun used for car washing, four sets of steps, a "crimping" tool and a gas torch - all totalling several hundred pounds.

A sports pavilion in the same area was broken into and thieves took a water tank and copper fittings, valued at around 1000, while a detection tool to find out if a household is receiving cable television illegally - worth 450 - disappeared from a depot.

In East Lothian, council-owned recycling bins were stolen from Tesco in Haddington as well as the Ship bar in Port Seton, costing the authority about 2000.

In Prestonpans, an empty council flat was raided for a gas boiler in February, while a lollipop woman had a mobile phone nicked as she hung her jacket near to the crossing she patrols.

Midlothian Council appears to have recorded the fewest losses and thefts, with the total reaching less than 1000 for the whole financial year.

The figures were released by the local authorities under the Freedom of Information Act.

A spokesman for the city council said people who removed belongings from public organisations such as councils and the NHS were essentially stealing from members of the public as well.

He said: "We take all reports of theft seriously and staff are always reminded about looking after their property.

"In effect, these thefts are actually stealing from the taxpayers themselves."

Laptops, mobile phones and USB memory sticks were among the 14 Capital thefts, which included an employee who had their home broken into and had a laptop stolen.

An encrypted smartphone worth 400 was also stolen from a council employee in an Edinburgh nightclub just before Christmas last year.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "There is simply no excuse for large items like computers apparently going missing. Staff need to take more responsibility for equipment that has been purchased with taxpayers' money and they should be held to account if it gets lost on their watch."