Cable thieves disguised in high-visibility jackets cut off thousands of homes and businesses

The thieves disguised themselves in high-visibility jackets, helmets and used barriers to cordon off areas in Wandle Road and Merton Road in Mitcham, and Wimbledon Hill Road in Wimbledon where telecommunications cables were cut.

Crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers and its partner Openreach, a BT Group Business, are now appealing for information about the incidents which left homes and businesses without telephone and broadband services.

Engineers worked around the clock to restore service to the impacted areas as quickly as possible.

A Crimestoppers spokesman said the first incident took place on Friday, January 23 at about 3.15pm in Mitcham, followed three days later by the incident in Wimbledon Hill Road at 2.15pm.

The charity is working with police to see if they are connected.

They are looking at CCTV footage of the affected areas. Bernie Auguste head of Openreach security said: "These criminal actions have resulted in thousands of homes and businesses being without telephone and broadband services across Wimbledon and Mitcham.

"Our teams are working around the clock to restore service and we are helping the police to bring the people responsible for these crimes to justice.

These incidents occurred during busy times of the day and we are calling on anyone who may have seen anything suspicious, however small, to contact Crimestoppers."

BT uses many security measures in the fight against cable theft, which includes its alarm technology RABIT (Rapid Assessment BT Incident Tracker) which was activated within seconds of these incidents happening.

Openreach has a partnership with Crimestoppers that offers rewards of up to £1,000 for information on cable thieves that lead to arrests and subsequent successful convictions.

If you have any information on this incident please contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or through our Anonymous Online Form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.