That’s the warning from Vacant Property Specialists (VPS), a firm that manages empty properties, which has found a “steady increase” in metal thieves targeting pubs.
In addition to theft of copper wiring, piping and tanks, the company has also listed rises in criminals stealing lead, slate and Yorkshire stone from roofing.
James Spencer, VPS national account manager, explained that the growth is down to “a spike in the price of metal”. “This has always been a problem, and the number of incidents has increased,” he said.
“The crimes are becoming more and more organised. We have often found that the criminals wear high-visibility jackets and park their van on-site, so that people do not suspect any wrong doing.
“Pubs are specifically a problem because it is very difficult to disguise that they are vacant. It can become very obvious very quickly to the local community when there is an empty pub. With residential properties, you can set a timer for the lights to go on in the house.
“Also, old buildings have got quite intricate pipe work, so there is quite a lot of raw material there.”
Spencer added: “Any criminal attack can cost thousands of pounds to rectify the damage, and we have heard anecdotally that if everything is stripped out, it can cost hundreds of thousands.”
Simon Alderson, VPS commercial director, advised: “Not only would we recommend properly-installed security screens and doors to the obvious entry points of the property, we would also recommend alarms with internal and external sensors to deter thefts.”