A former police officer, Newman is security manager at the railhead of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in Ashford.
He's been tasked with protecting millions of pounds worth of plant and materials and he has found a cost effective way to do it.
His plan is to paint everything that moves with a kind of invisible ink, ink that later will lead to a positive identification if the goods are recovered by police. Nothing is safe from Newman and his paintbrush, from the humble desk fan to a £1.4m machine that lays the rail panels.
How does it work? First you register with a company called SmartWater, which manufacturers ink that, chemically, is unique to you. Then you paint everything with the ink, which dries invisible and shows up only under ultraviolet light. Then, the equipment is stolen. Gone, but hopefully not forgotten, because if police raid a premise and discover the equipment, they run an ultraviolet lamp over it. If any SmartWater shows up, they scrape some off and send it to the forensic laboratory where scientists can link the product irrefutably to you.
What's to stop a thief from scraping the stuff off in the safety of his hideout? Newman was ready for that question. He opened the panel of a PC and shone his UV lamp. The ink had been sprayed right into the tangle of wires and bits, apparently not affecting the machine's performance.
"You only need the tiniest speck to get a positive identification," Newman said, demonstrating the real value of the SmartWater method — deterrence.
"Thieves are lazy," he said. "It's pretty easy to tear off a serial number plate, but it's different matter making sure there's none of this ink in the innards of a PC, or the innards of a generator."
That's why Newman is plastering the site with stickers about the SmartWater scheme.
Visit www.smartwater.com for more information.
Source
Construction Manager