PID offers a solution to soaring metal theft problems

The company, which has seen sales treble during the last 18 months, has spent the past four years developing its own range of battery-powered detection systems branded under the Armadillo name.

Because they don’t require mains electricity, the systems are particularly suited for remote locations such as roof tops, storage yards, open surface mines and electricity substations.

Such sites have become hotspots for crime due to surging commodity prices – the cost of copper, for example, has risen more than seven-fold since 2001 to hit a high of £6,356 per tonne last year.

George Haye, PID director and co-owner, said: “A lot of our clients are utilities providers which have substations full of copper earthing straps that are particularly valuable to theft.

“But it is also a huge problem along railway lines and historic buildings, and even transport companies with remote depots, where vehicle batteries and diesel are stolen.”

Having secured a number of local authority clients in Scotland, PID has now opened a small sales outpost in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. This is expected to soon begin generating revenues to add to the company’s current turnover of nearly £1.2 million.

The company is also recruiting to fill a key post heading up its engineering team, which is expected to grow in the coming months. Staff numbers could double to as many as 12 by this time next year.

“We are crazy busy with Armadillo,” said fellow director Graham Jones, who set up PID in 2007 with Haye.

The two founders each have a 46 per cent stake in the business, with the remainder owned by two further private investors.

PID’s newest system is designed specifically to protect architectural metal on rooftops. Any attempted theft is caught on video, while an indelible UV dye coats intruders and materials so they can be traced back to the scene of the crime.

Network Rail is among those to be hardest-hit by copper theft, which rose by 65 per cent between 2009 and 2010.

According to HM Revenue & Customs, an estimated 10,000 incidents of metal theft cost the UK economy £5.6 billion in lost revenue every year.