'Ten lorry loads' of stolen tools worth £2m uncovered by Met in Essex which 'would have caused delay to major project'

The £2 million haul led Metropolitan Police officers to a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) in East London, which contained the equivalent of ten lorry loads of tools.

Some of the stolen goods were taken from a site in Tilbury in Essex from contractors for the Lower Thames Crossing, which police said would have likely delayed the project had they not been recovered.

Shoaib Awan, a gas engineer from Romford and anti-tool theft campaigner, described the site as being “full of tools” with “six or seven rooms” filled with stolen kit.

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He praised officers for a “great find”, explaining that it was a “constant struggle” to locate these criminals who are moving to online marketplaces, in addition to places like car boot sales, to sell the high-value, expensive goods.

Inspector Mark Connolly from Havering explained that trackers on some of the stolen goods eventually led officers to an address in Ilford, where they subsequently found a “huge amount of stolen equipment”.

He told LBC: “A liberal estimate would be that there was between £1.5 million and £2 million worth of tools and equipment stolen, possibly more”

“This ranges from high-value equipment to smaller tools obtained by breaking into vans”.

The large majority of the stolen goods were taken from other companies, and some of the recovered high-value tools are believed to be linked to thefts dating back as far as 2019.

Two suspects were arrested at the scene, with a third individual identified and arrested at a different address, which is believed to have had more stolen items.

The suspects are thought to be part of an organised criminal group involved in reselling stolen items online and shipping them across the UK and Europe.

The operation was a joint operation by the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Constabulary and assisted by the National Construction and Agri Theft Team (NCATT).

Officers are now working to identify the items and trace their rightful owners.

Inspector Connolly has urged tradespeople to forensically mark their equipment in order to give officers the best chance of locating the equipment.

He said: "Too many tradespeople are being put out of work and out of pocket by organised tool thieves. Operations like this show that the Met is taking action to protect tradespeople and their livelihoods.

"This is one of the largest recoveries of stolen tools we’ve ever made, and it sends a clear message that we will identify offenders and bring them to justice. Our teams are working with partners across construction, retail and logistics to disrupt the organised networks that profit from these offences, and to return stolen tools to their rightful owners.

"Our message to tradespeople is to mark your items with synthetic DNA to make it easier to forensically link items and register the serial number with the manufacturer and the UK National Property Register."

HS2 and Balfour Beatty have been contacted by LBC for a response.