Copper thieves are more brazen and taking exceptional risks, demolition experts say

Steve King, managing director of Merit Consulting Group at a demolition site. (Supplied: Merit Consulting Group)

Copper theft from demolition sites is now the norm, Perth demolition contractor Steve King says.

Thieves appear to be gambling with their health and safety, risking electrocution, falls and asbestos exposure to get the scrap metal.

Legislation introduced in 2020 to monitor the sale of scrap copper does not appear to have had much effect on theft.

Rising copper theft is not just leaving Perth roads in darkness as street lighting is stripped, it's also costing building owners thousands of dollars, with increasingly brazen thieves raiding vacant buildings.

The global copper price has skyrocketed in the last ten years, rising from $7.86 per kilogram in 2017 to $20 per kilogram today. Over the same period, scrap copper prices have risen from around $6 per kilogram to around $11.

Steve King, the managing director of a Perth-based demolition and asbestos remediation company, told Nadia Mitsopoulos on 102.5 ABC Radio Perth that the losses from sites his company works on are now huge.

"Over the past five years, on up to about 80 per cent of our demolition sites, people get in and they'll steal copper," Mr King said.

"They'll take brass and other minor items, but mainly copper, water pipes, heater pipes — anything they can get hold of — because it's easy cash."

Steve King says his company frequently finds demolition sites with asbestos material exposed after copper thefts. (Supplied: Merit Consulting Group)

He said the thieves were moving so fast, it was difficult for authorised demolition crews to get there first.

"We tend to find that they're either there the day after the demolition permit's been issued or even sometimes beforehand if they see it's vacant," he said.

Those thefts come at a heavy cost, both for Mr King's business and his customers, because they are now no longer able to recoup part of the demolition costs by selling the scrap copper from the properties.

"[In previous years] we actually would allow a value for that copper within our tender prices, so the client would get a partial benefit for the value of the copper," he said.

"Nowadays, we don't allow anything for the value of copper in our projects."

The value of copper ranges from $500 to $1,000 for a typical house to anything from $5,000 to $100,000 for a commercial building.

"We try and talk to our clients about getting in early so we can at least try and salvage that for them … but everybody's nervous about doing anything without a demolition permit in place."

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