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20/04/2007
Former rail worker jailed for vandalism
A former railway worker who conducted a 17-month campaign of vandalism that caused massive disruption on the rail network has been jailed for ten years.
Allan Nicol, 48, of Yardley, Birmingham, was found guilty of endangering lives by setting fire to a trackside relay room in Rugeley, Staffordshire in November 2005.
He had previously admitted 12 offences of causing criminal damage, including cutting cables and setting fire to signalling equipment, to tracks in the West Midlands between June 2004 and November 2005.
The attacks are believed to have cost Network Rail more than £4 million, with nearly 7,000 train services cancelled or delayed as a result.
A reward of £50,000 had been offered for the capture of the person responsible.
At sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, Judge Robert Orme said that Nicol's campaign had been designed to cause "maximum interference" to passenger and freight traffic.
(KMcA/JM)
Allan Nicol, 48, of Yardley, Birmingham, was found guilty of endangering lives by setting fire to a trackside relay room in Rugeley, Staffordshire in November 2005.
He had previously admitted 12 offences of causing criminal damage, including cutting cables and setting fire to signalling equipment, to tracks in the West Midlands between June 2004 and November 2005.
The attacks are believed to have cost Network Rail more than £4 million, with nearly 7,000 train services cancelled or delayed as a result.
A reward of £50,000 had been offered for the capture of the person responsible.
At sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, Judge Robert Orme said that Nicol's campaign had been designed to cause "maximum interference" to passenger and freight traffic.
(KMcA/JM)
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