Hi-tech equipment stolen at the BBC every month
EQUIPMENT worth £25,000 disappears at the BBC every month – most of it stolen, figures show.
New figures show expensive equipment disappears regularly at the BBC
During the past two years 176 phones vanished at a cost of £47,024 and exactly the same number of laptops, valued at £225,314.
That was almost half the £607,024 worth of all equipment, including cameras and audio recorders, lost or stolen from the BBC over that time.
Details of the losses, which were revealed following a Freedom of Information Act request, showed that the most valuable item of equipment stolen was a camera costing £43,816.
The value of the average stolen laptop was £1,600.
In the past 24 months the BBC said that 35 items of camera equipment were stolen from the corporation worth a total of £222,120.
In the last two years 176 phones vanished at a cost of £47,024
Cameras and audio recorders have also been stolen from the BBC
Records show that even a car worth £4,000 was taken from outside a BBC office in Africa.
One audio recorder worth £1,800 was lost by staff.
In total across the past two years the BBC has seen £519,961 of equipment stolen and another £87,063 worth of items lost.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Licence fee payers will be shocked.
“When families are struggling with rising bills, anyone dealing with taxpayers’ money needs to be particularly careful to make sure not a single penny is wasted.”
BBC has introduced new measures to reduce the level of crime
A BBC spokesman said it had introduced new measures to reduce the level of crime, adding: “We are a large public organisation with thousands of staff, many of whom routinely travel and/or perform their roles outside BBC buildings, as well as many visitors who attend BBC buildings every week.”