Mid West police hunting group over mine site burglaries

Mid West police are stepping up their efforts to hunt a group of thieves who have broken into a number of abandoned mine sites in the Murchison over the past six months.

Sen. Sgt Chris Martin said “organised” mine site burglaries had increased this year, with four sites around Mount Magnet and Sandstone hit in the past two weeks.

“Some of them are 15 or 20 years old however there’s still a large amount of valuable property out in these remote locations,” he said. “Some have been burgled repeatedly over past months.”

He said the thieves had made off with mining equipment, tools, gold dust and even a vehicle from sites across the region.

“We’re not saying this is the work of organised crime, but it’s organised in the sense these people have carefully planned each burglary,” he said.

He said local police were making this investigation a priority and were appealing for people who travel for work within the region to come forward if they had seen anything suspicious.

“Given that the nearest police stations can be up to 100km away we’re conscious that members of the public can assist identifying the perpetrators,” he said.

He said police had received intelligence suggesting the burglaries were the work of a “confined number of people”.