A 41-YEAR-OLD Network Rail employee is among 15 people arrested as part of an investigation into railway cable theft.

Ninety officers from British Transport Police's Operation Leopard raided 12 addresses in Sunderland in a series of raids in the early hours of Wednesday morning to swoop on a suspected organised criminal gang.

Fourteen people, 11 men aged between 24 and 43, and three women, aged 18 to 27, were arrested in the Sunderland area.

A 50-year-old man was also arrested in Osmotherley, North Yorkshire.

A number of items were seized and removed including mobile phones, laptops and bank statements, which will now be forensically examined.

Detective Inspector Stuart Mellish said: “These arrests follow a complex 18-month investigation.

"We believe this organised gang have been working together to steal cable, valued in the region of over £2m, from across England over the past two years.

“Railway cable theft is blighting our infrastructure and disrupting the lives of ordinary people on a daily basis, but we have teams of officers dedicated to tackling the problem  who have been really effective.

"Recently we’ve seen significant reductions in cable-related offences on the railway in the North-East - a 69 per cent reduction - which is great news.”

Det Insp Melish thanked members of the public for their support in helping to tackle cable theft crime and asked that people continued to report any suspicious behaviour to police.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said its employee had been suspended, but was unable to give any further details.