On Dec 29, 1:27*pm, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

It still doesn't mean that a particular bit of scrap in the heap of
similar scrap came from a particular person. That is the weak
(broken) link in the chain, if you can't prove that X bit of scrap
came from Y person you can't prosecute Y. If you can prove that X bit
of scrap is from Z building you might be able to prosecute the scrapy
for handling stolen goods.

There was a bloke done recently for trying to sell a bronze plaque
stolen from a war memorial. It had been bent over to conceal the
names, but the scrappy saw what it was and refused to buy it. The
bloke claimed he'd bought it from others he was too scared to name.

It all helps to make the selling of stolen scrap more difficult.
The pikeys will melt the stolen metal into ingots before selling it,
or strip the marked plastic sheathing from stolen BTor BR cables.