Thieves disguised as tradesmen vandalise Mernda Cricket Club

THIEVES disguised as tradesmen have caused thousands of dollars of damage to a Mernda cricket club, forcing games to be cancelled and leaving the ground needing repairs.

Margot Taylor

less than 2 min read

November 9, 2018 - 9:26AM

Whittlesea Leader

North

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CRIMINALS disguised as tradesmen have left Mernda Cricket Club with thousands of dollars of damage after they attempted to steal electrical cabling.

Mernda Cricket Club president Rob Corrigan said hundreds of players had been impacted by the calculated attempted theft at the Waterview Reserve grounds with all training and games having to be relocated for a week and repairs expected to take up to three weeks.

“We are very angry at what they have done,” Mr Corrigan said.

“Obviously it has been done by someone who knows what they are doing.”

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While attempts to take copper were unsuccessful, fuses had been removed from the electrical sub board leaving the club without power to the pavilion, field lights and irrigation pumps.

Hundreds of dollars worth of stock inside fridges at the club had also gone to waste, Mr Corrigan said.

“We believe it happened between Monday night on October 29 and the Tuesday morning.”

A Cable pit where copper cables were cut by thieves at the Maribyrnong Football Club rooms in Moonee Valley in June.

Copper cable is often sold as scrap for between $4-$6 a kg, or on the black market to building sites.

Players returned to the club on November 8 and senior games would start tomorrow, Mr Corrigan said.

He praised Whittlesea Council for helping the club get to a usable state so quickly after the “very serious vandalism”.

Whittlesea mayor Lawrie Cox said the thieves appeared to have a “high quality operation” involving trucks and people dressed in high-visibility clothing.

“The attempted theft will take weeks to repair and will cost thousands of dollars,” Mr Cox said.

Copper was stolen from the Mernda Cricket Club grounds last month, leaving the ground unusable. Club secretary Shane McCarter. Picture: Sarah Matray

He urged people to report any suspicious behaviour around sporting reserves to the police.

The incident shared similarities to copper thefts from the Maribyrnong Football Club rooms in Moonee Valley in June and Strathmore’s Strathnaver Reserve Pavilion in April.