A gang of Romanian cable thieves who dressed in orange hi-vis jackets to pose as legitimate workmen have been jailed for three years after being caught red-handed. The trio were rumbled as they set up plastic safety barriers and began plundering valuable copper wiring in central Birmingham, just yards from a police station, on January 20, 2026.
Dramatic footage shows the moment the brazen thieves were caught after turning up in a white van. As they started cutting cables with a power saw, an alarm was triggered, and a nearby police armed response unit apprehended them. Two of the thieves were ordered against their van, but a third, Marian Agarlita, 37, remained in the tunnel and refused to come out. Amid fears of dangerous wires or leaking gas, plans were discussed to dig a new hole to extract him, but he surrendered when a dog unit arrived.
The gang cut seven cables, affecting 7,800 lines to businesses and government departments. Around 5,000 customers suffered interruptions to phone and internet services. Repairs costing nearly £97,000 have yet to be completed, Birmingham Crown Court heard. Prosecutor David Iles said the gang showed a reckless disregard for consequences, as lift and fire alarms were also affected. “One slip of their power saw could have been catastrophic to critical services,” he said.
Agarlita, getaway driver Altafin Poenaru, 49, and Sorin Condrache, 45, all admitted theft. Agarlita, of the Isle of Wight, had been in the UK for 15 years and worked as a plasterer. His barrister, Stefan Salhan, said he expressed genuine remorse. Condrache, of Smethwick, was an online trader who came to the UK in 2021 and has two teenage children in Germany. Poenaru, also of Smethwick, had been in the UK since 1999 and ran a bar. He is a grandfather and felt great shame. None had previous convictions.
Jailing them each for three years, Recorder Ben Close said: “There must have been significant disruption to businesses using all those different lines and the harm would have been greater had the alarms not gone off and the police been close by.”
Afterwards, PC Charlotte Gurrey, who led the investigation, said: “The gang were clearly skilled, organised, and a significant amount of planning went into their efforts to steal communications cable that night. They showed a complete disregard for the knock-on impact on communication within the city.”
Robin Edwards, from the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership, said: “Metal crime is a blight on our communities, industry and has a significant impact on our daily lives. This type of blatant and organised criminality is unacceptable.” An Openreach spokesperson added: “Cable theft causes real harm. When phone and broadband services are taken out, it can leave vulnerable people without the support they rely on.”
