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Press Release
23rd February 2005

KEG WATCH
Thieves Target Kegs & Casks!

Due to the current high price and high demand of stainless steel, kegs and casks are once again a favoured target for theft.

Over the past few months the number of keg and cask (container) thefts reported to Keg Watch have increased dramatically. Thieves will strike at any time of the day or night and will take any number of containers, using curtain sided articulated vehicles if they need to. The problem is not isolated to one particular area but is being reported from locations right across the United Kingdom.

Keg Watch representatives together with police are carrying out detailed investigations into these costly thefts. It is worth remembering that the proceeds from these thefts are very often used to fund more menacing crimes such as drugs and organised violence.

Very recently a prominent scrap metal processor in the Midlands was fined £1,500 with £500 costs after pleading guilty to handling 186 brewers kegs contained in his yard in two large skips, knowing or believing that they were stolen. Magistrates had considered giving him a custodial sentence for the offence. Also in January a driver in a curtain sided articulated vehicle pulled into a Cheshire metal processors with a 3.2 tonnes load of kegs and casks stating that he was from Keg Watch. Due to the processors knowing of Keg Watch they took it that the man was telling the truth and duly unloaded him and destroyed the containers. It was only when the owner of the company spoke to a Keg Watch representative a few days later that it came to light that the driver was an impostor and that he had given false vehicle registration details.

Any person being an agent or employee of Keg Watch will always have proof of their identity and this can always be checked by contacting the Keg Watch office. Also, Keg Watch very rarely destroys kegs, casks or dispense gas cylinders and even then only with the permission of the container owner and using carefully selected, audited and authorised disposal agents.

Container thefts in the main are from licensed premises and licensees can help in reducing these thefts by following the ‘Business Guidelines’ which appear in the ‘User Guidelines’ section of the Keg Watch website.

If you have any information regarding the theft or misappropriation of kegs, casks or dispense gas cylinders then please contact Keg Watch on freephone number 0808 100 1945 or email. Your call or email will be treated in the strictest confidence.

ENDS

Editor’s Note

Further information can be found by contacting Keg Watch Limited either by telephoning 0808 100 1945 or by visiting the web site www.kegwatch.co.uk.