Last month, Network Rail said passengers were delayed by 6,088 hours over the past year because of cable thefts along its routes. The rail operator’s figures showed the number of theft incidents in the 2010-11 financial year leaped by 52 per cent to 995 on the railways it controls. The crime causes significant disruption to rail services and places huge financial costs on the rail industry. The organisation blames the high cost of scrap copper for increased cable thefts.