LOSING THE RAG
Charity boss blasts clothes bank bandits
AGLASGOW charity l eader believes crime rings are targeting kerbside clothing banks. Ross Galbraith, of Glasgow the Caring City, said the thefts amounted to tens of thousands of pounds of stolen goods.
A GLASGOW charity leader has urged police chiefs to do more to tackle crime rings he believes are targeting kerbside clothing banks.
Ross Galbraith, development manager of Glasgow the Caring City, said it was something that the charity had been fighting, “for a long, long, ti me” and amounted to tens of thousands of pounds of stolen goods.
He said collection banks in the South Side of the city had been targeted at least six times in February.
He believes groups are travelling around Scotland and using sophisticated cutting equipment to break the locks with the aim of selling the clothes on to commercial recyclers.
Mr Galbraith said the charity had tried “every means possible” to deter the criminals and have repeatedly passed on information to police.
However, he says they became frustrated at the apparent lack of action and have now stopped reporting thefts.
The charity has around 30 banks across the city which distribute clothing to families in crisis overseas.
Mr Galbraith said: “We are talking about organised crime.
“It’s the same description of the same individuals coming up.
“We appreciate the police have a lot of issues to deal with but they need to come up with a strategy about how they are going to tackle this because it is robbery.
“If this was repeated house break-ins, then quite rightly, they would do everything possible to trace the culprits.
“Our banks are exceptionally hard to get into.
“The equipment they are using must be similar to that used by the fire service.”
Mr Galbraith said banks in Langside and Battlefield were being repeatedly targeted - an area where the chari- ty is well supported by the community.
He said: “The individuals who are breaking in are aware that these are banks in areas which are really well supported.
“They know when our vehicles have been round to fill up the banks to get the maximum amount of clothing.
“They have got that level of detail.
“Our banks hold around a tonne of clothing.
“If you take it to a com- mercial recycler, you are getting £1 a kilo for it. That’s a lot of money.
“We’ve tried smart water over the locks, we’ve tried alarms, we’ve tried CCTV.
“We have tried every means possible of deterring these individuals but the threat of a deterrent doesn’t have any impact.
“We put tracking tags on our bags and traced this back to a warehouse in Coatbridge.
“We traced a registration back to a garage in Carlisle.
“We passed that information on to the police and nothing happened.
“We were constantly on the phone to the police but it has got to the point where we’ve stopped reporting it.
“We need the police to be more pro-active to break the ring.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “We’ve spoken to the charity and inquiries will be carried out with regard to the thefts.”