$4.1m Fine for Sims for Buying Clearly Stolen Metal at California Recycling Facilities

Sims Metal Management is to pay $ 4.1 million as part of a settlement of a civil prosecution brought by the two District Attorneys for breaches of regulations intended to reduce metal theft in California. Sims owns and operates eight metal recycling facilities in Northern California, and was accused by the District Attorneys of consistently violating the anti-metal theft laws. In recent years, California has seen an increase in metal theft from local governments, construction sites, public transit, utilities and foreclosed homes, and according to one of the prosecutors, Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark A. Peterson, the state is facing an epidemic of metal theft. The second prosecuting attorney, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón added that “metal theft threatens the well-being of our infrastructure and costs the community dearly”. In an effort to shut down the market for stolen metal, California has passed laws designed to prevent, deter and detect metal theft by imposing requirements on companies that purchase scrap metal. For example, scrap metal dealers must take steps to determine that the material they are purchasing was not stolen, and they must photograph, fingerprint, and record the identification of individuals selling certain types of scrap metal. Unless a statutory exception applies, dealers must also wait three days before paying the seller for the scrap metal. Undercover investigations According to the City and County of San Francisco’s District Attorney’s Office, during an investigation of Sims, undercover officers in San Francisco and Contra Costa County offered to sell the company utility wire, communication wire, and public utility fixtures. The prosecutors said that the company’s employees purchased the clearly “stolen” material, and failed to record the required information about the sellers. Digging deeper, the investigators said that a lengthy review of the company’s records revealed that these failures were just the tip of the iceberg. For many years, Sims was said to have violated the anti-metal theft laws by, for example, not holding payments for the required three days or buying scrap metal without requiring identification or other information from the sellers. Sinner to model recycler Under the settlement reached with the prosecutors, Sims must pay $4.1 million in civil penalties and costs. Sims will also be bound by a permanent injunction that insures good business practices and prohibits future violations of the law. By entering into this injunction, the District Attorney’s Office said that Sims is agreeing to procedures that will make it a model for California metal recyclers in the future. “The economic cost of metal theft cannot be calculated. It is not enough to go after the metal thieves alone,” commented Peterson. “Recycling companies must be required to act responsibly because they can deter metal theft,” he added. More on the story in WMW's Weekly Newscast below. Read More Trash Talking: Tacking Metal Theft As metal prices have risen on the world markets over recent years, so has the age old problem of metal theft. Around the world municipal, transport and communications infrastructure, as well as religious and cultural property have been targeted by metal thieves. WMW asks some of the world's leading experts what is being done about it, and what more governments, law enforcement agencies and the recycling industry itself could do to combat the issue. VIDEO: Human Body Parts Found in Concrete at Recycling Plant in Nagasaki, Japan Human body parts have been found in rubble at a concrete recycling plant in Nagasaki, Japan. Renewable Energy Firm Acquires C&D Recycling Plant from Casella ReEnergy Holdings has acquired a construction and demolition material recycling facility in Lewiston, Maine from KTI Bio-Fuels - a y subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems.