CID move on lorry sabotage
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GREATER Manchester detectives are investigating a series of acts of sabotage on a paper firm's lorry fleet.
In the past three months five attacks have been made on lorries belonging to East Lancashire Paper Mill at Radcliffe, Greater Manchester.
These attacks include in airline being cut and sheets being undone. In another case, electrical wiring was ripped out and the damage only discovered when police stopped the vehicle on the motorway because the rear lights were not on.
A brake hose was slashed on a new 32-ton Leyland Marathon unit and trailer in the latest attack, but luckily the fail-safe low air pressure device preventing driver Clifford Duckworth from starting his journey to Hartlepool.
Alan Holt, the company's transport manager, said, "It seems that someone has a grudge against the company". He believed the attacks were nothing to do with the recent drivers' dispute — they started long before this. He could see no reason why the attacks have been restricted to the company's nine-lorry fleet, or who could be responsible.
Company security officer Mike Pickstone is checking with the police to see if similar incidents have been reported by any other companies.