Narrowboat as getaway 'vehicle'

THIEVES used a narrowboat as a getaway 'vehicle' to make off with five tons of aluminium they had stolen from a Bloxwich company.

Workers at Impalloy Ltd in Bloxwich were amazed to discover the metal had been carried from the foundry down a steep embankment, through a fence and loaded onto a narrowboat on the Wyrley & Essington Canal.

A trail of metal had been discovered down to the waterway, where the thieves had cut an hole in the fence, and used timber to make a make-shift jetty.

The metal however, was not expensive aluminium but worthless scrap, which had been piled outside the foundry.

However, in March this year 61 tons of aluminium was stolen worth around £70,000, so the foundry is popular with thieves.