More than 2,000 people in Esher and Thames Ditton were left without their telephone line and internet service, after thieves stole underground copper cabling from the area on Tuesday, March 18.

Thieves smashed through bollards and dug up land near the Weston Lodge in Portsmouth Road, Thames Ditton, during the night, and took about 300 metres of wiring A source, who did not want to be named, told the Elmbridge Guardian 61 similar incidents had occurred around the country since January this year, because of the value of the copper wiring.

He said: “The thieves stole about £17,000 of copper on the night in question. The price of copper has trebled and, instead of stealing lead, thieves are now taking copper because it is also easy to do.”

A spokesman for British Telecom (BT), which said households in the KT7 and KT10 postcode areas had been affected, apologised for the disruption, which left some people without phonelines until Monday.

Colin Spencer-Townson, who runs the CTC Professional Systems business from his home in the Woodlands, Esher, said the past week without internet access had been “hell”.

He said: “My business has been seriously affected by this. We run an email service and we had to rush it to another location. It’s been very difficult.

“I’ve definitely lost business from this. I’m trying to get compensation, but I doubt I’ll get any. With the amount of times these things have happened this year, I’m surprised BT haven’t got their act together to deal promptly with these incidents.”

A BT spokesman said engineers had worked non-stop to restore the service as quickly as possible.

He said: “We do believe a large number of customers were impacted by this crime and our engineers worked 24/7.

“Unfortunately this had to be done in stages to restore service and we totally appreciate the incredible disruption this incident has caused.”

Anyone with any information about the theft should contact Surrey Police on 0845 1252222.