- Coming up on this week's news, thieves target EV charges in their copper cables in a crime wave sweeping the UK. Amey Rail is fined half a million pounds as a worker suffers horrific electrocution injuries and women electricians come together to tackle imposter syndrome. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly. Whether you're listening in the van, on site or down at the wholesale counter, I'm Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble. And as always, if you think you've spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into this week's show, comment with them below for the chance to win a prize. The UK is suffering a wave of thefts as criminals discover the value of electric vehicle chargers and their copper cables. From Sheffield to Oxford to Bournemouth, reports are coming into eFIXX at an alarming rate. In one small estate in Hungerford, 15 chargers have been removed under the cover of night. In other incidents, charging cables are hacked off and removed even when they're connected to cars. It's believed that the stolen units often end up on secondhand websites such as Gumtree, eBay and Facebook Marketplace where they can fetch around 200 pounds. The used cables command around 50 pounds for their metal. Security experts recommend CCTV, dash cameras and using a padlock to deter thieves. They also say that cybersecurity weaknesses, which allow criminals to access and unlock charge points need to be fixed. The robbery of tools has also been a major headache for the electrical trade in recent years. But now victims are asking if it's been effectively legalized in London following the revelation that just 0.3% of gear raids have resulted in a charge. A freedom of information request to the Metropolitan Police reveals that almost 35,000 tools were stolen in London from 2021 to 2022 compared to 21,000 from 2019 to 2020 but just three cases in 1,000 ended up with the accused going to court. In 86% of incidents in the capital reported between 2021 and 2022, a suspect was never identified. It's estimated that over a 40-year working life, tradespeople will typically lose 10,000 pounds and six working days to tool theft. Electricians are advised to mark and photograph their more valued items, record serial numbers where possible and fit expensive pieces of kit with tracking devices. In other news, Amey Rail has been fined a whopping half a million pounds after a worker suffered life-changing injuries from touching a live cable at 25,000 volts. Self-employed technician, Alistair Hunt suffered 55% burns and he needed skin grafts following the incident. His eyesight and hearing were also affected. It appears Hunt was part of a team who were unaware that they were working outside an electrical isolation area. They were checking electrical circuitry on railway tracks about two and a half miles outside London's Paddington Station. The rail watchdog has now found that Amey Rail Limited did not have effective systems in place to supervise the safe conduct of the work. The company also failed to ensure that test before touch was properly and adequately carried out. Test before touch is a method of proving cables and conductors are dead before people are allowed to work on them. Amey Ray Limited pleaded guilty to an offense under Health and Safety at Work legislation. It was fined 533,000 pounds, and ordered to pay costs of 41,000 pounds and a victim surcharge of 181 pounds. To keep yourself safe from electric shock, check out our free training packages to help you with your CPD on the subject of safe isolation. You'll find the link in the show notes. Now, women in our trade face a few challenges that generally men don't tend to experience quite so much. The first is isolation. While it seems every guy spark has a mate on the tools, female electricians often never meet with other trades women. One lady plumber said it took her 17 years to meet another. Another problem is imposter syndrome. This is when someone feels like they shouldn't be doing what they're doing. The good news is that female electricians and other tradeswomen are set to get together and talk about these and other issues. And everyone's invited. The Women Installers Together event takes place in London on Thursday the 6th of July and is completely free. The first time it was held back in 2017, they were queuing up the street to get in. So register early to reserve your place. I've popped a link in the show notes. In product news this week, KNIPEX has unveiled its first ever tool backpack. The Modular X18 lets you carry 15 kilos of kit in comfort and as you'd expect from this German manufacturer, it's top quality with space for 50 tools. You can also buy a fully loaded bag especially for electricians with 22 items, 16 of them are KNIPEX. Check out the webpage for this product. The video is hypnotic and this is definitely going on my present list. The company has also introduced a metric version of its forged wire strippers to complement the AWG model. These are designed specifically for metric cable cross-sections. A clever step design means that it cuts single wires in cables, one after another, reducing the effort required. There are five stripping profiles and it can cut round wires right up to 15 millimeters in diameter. Click the link in the show notes to see all the reviews we've done on KNIPEX tools. There's some great stuff in there. Lighting Company Ledvance has come up with a clever idea ahead of the UK's ban on fluorescent tubes later this year. By the way, if you missed our previous News Weekly about the phasing out of florries, I've popped a link to that in the show notes. But what Ledvance has done is come up with a LED tube and driver kit to make it easy to make the switch. You pop out the fluorescent tube, remove the ballast from the luminaire and replace it with the LED tube driver, which should be an exact fit. You just simply wire it up and insert the LED tube. Ta da, you've beaten the ban. You can get kits for both T8 and T5 fluorescents. It's dimmable and it also works with emergency lighting. And finally, a London landlord has been fined 100,000 pounds after he turned the power off on two members of the nobility. Talha Abbasi pulled the plug on Count Niki Bolza and Countess Christine Bolza after they missed the rent citing cashflow problems. The Austro-Hungarian aristocrats were suddenly plunged into darkness in their apartment on the fashionable Portobello Road. The Countess said they had no lighting, heating or cooking facilities for 19 days, and she couldn't even read a bedtime story to her son. Mr. Abbasi claimed that he switched the electricity off on safety grounds as he feared the meter had been interfered with. Judge Stephen Hellman said he accepts the meter was probably tampered with by an electrician on the instruction of Count Niki but he ruled that it didn't justify withholding power to the couple. He ordered Mr. Abbasi to also pay 90,000 pounds in legal costs. Apparently, that's enough to restore equilibrium. Now, just before we get to your favorite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words and winners, we want to thank our premium partners. We couldn't make the news without you. First up, for all your circuit protection needs, they're like having an Italian star striker in your Premiership team, it's Lewden Palazzoli, and the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, it's Doncaster Cables, the home of EV-Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality cables and one of the biggest lighting companies in the world because their capital is always Dublin, it's Irish lighting manufacturer, ROBUS, home of great quality and innovative lighting products. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the news. If you think you know the words that I've smuggled into this week's show, pop your guesses into the comments and we'll dig out a goodie bag prize to the first to get the right answers. Last week's words were bumblebee and apocalyptic, and the first person to get it right was Kev Fieldhouse. So well done to you, Kev. Make sure you click the link in the show notes to claim your prize. And also a special shout out this week to Darron J. Knight who beat me to the punch by joking that apocalyptic bumblebee was his new favorite band name. You've been awarded a bonus prize for making me laugh. So again, click the link in the show notes to claim that. Coming up on our channel this week, we go back to BASECs on our livestream show eFIXX TV with the legend that is Aaron Walstow from Doncaster Cables and representatives of BASEC to talk to us about all things coppery and cable-y. Will they end up #AboveAaron on the challenge wall? Make sure you're watching Wednesday at 8 to find out. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly. Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening, and until next time, have a great week. Stay safe out there. And remember, there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm.