Power bills to surge as copper thieves cost Qld $4.5m each year

Skyrocketing rates of copper theft across Queensland have cost about $20m over five years, with Energy Australia confirming costs are passed onto the customer.

Skyrocketing rates of copper theft across Queensland are costing the state’s energy system at least $4.5m a year, with Energy Queensland revealing offenders have been found dead or only narrowly escaped serious injury while attempting to steal.

Energy Queensland also revealed the number of incidents had increased 325 per cent from an average of 40 incidents a year in 2017-18 to 170 incidents in 2022-23 – an average of one theft every two days.

The state government recently launched an inquiry into copper theft, with the parliamentary committee tasked with looking into how the scrap-metal market operates, the impacts of theft and the effectiveness of existing laws.

A copper theft site in suburban Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

The inquiry is expected to result in recommended legislative changes to deter, detect and disrupt metal theft.

The financial impact of copper theft to Energy Queensland, Australia’s largest wholly government owned electricity company, is estimated at more than $20m over the past five years – more than the recovery bill for the outfit after the 2022 floods.

“These costs are ultimately passed through to customers,” the company warned in its submission to the inquiry.

Copper thieves are also putting their lives on the line, with a person found dead in 2020 after attempting to steal copper from an industrial estate, while another escaped electrocution after chopping through an 11,000-volt Energex cable with an axe the same year.

Tamas Csontos, 35, of South Brisbane was charged over an alleged copper stealing scheme. Csontos and Dean Paul Morcus, 38, of Karalee, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court in August.

This year someone started a grassfire after attaching their car to a live 11,000-volt underground cable, which was secured off a pole to tear to it off, with the wire hitting the ground and sparking a grassfire.

The Arnott’s factory in Virginia was also affected this year when a thief cut through a live 11,000-volt cable on a bridge with an angle grinder, leading to a 36-hour outage.

Energy Queensland data revealed Brisbane North has emerged as the state’s major copper theft hotspot, with 110 incidents since 2018, 61 of which were in 2023.

This was followed by Brisbane South, with a total of 97 incidents in the last six years, Lockyer with 54 cases, the south west with 34 cases (19 in 2023) and 30 on the Darling Downs (15 in 2023).

An example of copper theft occurring throughout Queensland. Picture: Supplied

The company wants harsher penalties for copper strippers, for strap metal dealers to be punished if they allow sellers to pay with cash or cryptocurrency and for stricter rules governing the scrap-metal sector overall.

The Waste Recycling Industry Association, in its submission, warned “no cash for scrap” schemes would not solve the problem of metal theft and could make it harder for authorities to catch black-market operators.

They called for a focus on enforcement and compliance of illegal backyard operators.

The committee’s report is due on November 24.