VILLAGERS and politicians last night called for more security and harsher punishments for cable and metal thieves after a string of raids.

Some 350 homes and businesses in North Oxfordshire were cut off from phone and Internet services after thieves stole more than 1km of copper cabling from BT’s Steeple Aston exchange on Friday.

Last night, BT had still not been able to start reconnecting residents.

Now residents are demanding answers about why the telephone exchange on South Side, Steeple Aston, was still unsecured even after the thieves struck.

Tony Castle-Miller, of Middle Barton Garage, said: “I drove past the Steeple Aston exchange on Saturday afternoon and it was wide open.

“A nice big padlock was hanging open. Why not put a sign there saying ‘come back and help yourselves’?

“On Sunday it was still unlocked. It just makes a mockery of the security. It’s incredibly frustrating.”

Melvin Phipps, landlord of the Red Lion in Steeple Aston, said despite not being affected by the initial cable theft, their phoneline was taken out all day on Monday by the repair work.

He said: “Takings for Monday were down. If it had been a Friday or Saturday, that would have been devastating.”

A BT spokesman said: “We are investigating this security lapse allegation, but would stress that the security of our network is of paramount importance to us.

“This fault is proving very complex to fix as the thieves have caused extensive damage to the cable casing, which means we have had to do some extensive excavating work.

“As a result we have been unable to start restoring service to customers yet, but once we have completed the cabling we will start restoring service to customers and our engineers will work 24/7 to get this done.”

MP Tony Baldry called on magistrates to take a stronger stance against convicted thieves.

Currently theft of metal is sentenced in the same way as an ordinary theft and carries a maximum sentence of six months at magistrates’ court and seven years at crown court.

Mr Baldry said: “Without being melodramatic, it’s going to be a matter of time before this leads to somebody’s death when they are not able to dial 999.”

Nick Gilbert, police crime reduction officer, said: “Thames Valley Police is committed to tackling metal theft and bringing to justice those who carry out this type of offence.

“As part of this commitment we have an ongoing multi-agency operation to target this offence – Operation Precious – which aims to reduce the opportunity for thieves to sell on or dispose of stolen metal.

“We work closely with scrap metal dealers and vehicle dismantlers to turn away and report any attempts to sell stolen metal. All those dealers participating in this are licensed by their local authority.

“There is no room for complacency and we are taking every step we can to combat this. Officers are equipped with ultra-violet lights to carry out checks for forensically marked metal and, along with local authorities, regular inspections are carried out on scrap metal dealers and vehicle dismantler sites.”

Dot Holloway was one of those left stranded when thieves struck in Minster Lovell last year.

She said: “The cash machines were down and the stores couldn’t take card payments.

“We were off for four days and the whole village was affected. We couldn’t use the cash machine in the post office to get our pension or dial 999 if we needed to.”

In a recent case, five men and a teenager were jailed for five days at Banbury Magistrates’ Court for stealing copper cable from Oxford Industrial Park in Yarnton on January 16.