A SCRAP dealer who teamed up with the police in the fight against metal thieves fears new government legislation could ruin his livelihood.

Registered metal dealer Patrick Dowd collects scrap around the Bishop Auckland area and worked with Durham Police to offer a free collection service to deter thieves from stealing scrap metal from private land.

Now he is angry that one of the new laws brought in under the Scrap Metal Act 2013 - preventing dealers from buying or selling metal for cash - could spell the end of his trade.

He said: “I pay my tax and stamp duty and think that these new laws are unfair.

“My truck is my scrap yard, I go out and I price up jobs and offer to buy scrap metal but people are not going to take a £500 cheque off me for their car if they’ve never seen me before are they?

“We are the legitimate side of metal dealing and I have bills to pay just like anybody else.”

Fines of up to £5,000 can be imposed on scrap metal dealers who trade in cash when the Act becomes enforceable in December.

Payments must instead be made by electronic transfer or cheque and the law was brought in as part of a raft of measures, including the tightening up of licences and customer identification, in an effort to curb metal thefts.

The British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) was consulted over the new rules and its membership support official Ken Mackenzie said that when cash payments were banned last December under a different Act, it created an unfair playing field because motor vehicle salvage operators and certain mobile collectors were exempt.

“Last year’s ban on cash payments for scrap metal was extended under the 2013 Scrap Metal Dealers’ Act to all metal dealers, bringing an end to these exceptions.

“The new Act improves the traceability of scrap metal transactions, exposes potential outlets for stolen metal and establishes increased penalties for breaking the law.”

Scrap metal theft is estimated to cost the UK economy £220 million a year and has risen steadily over the last few years as the value of metal, particularly copper and lead, has increased.