Criminals posing as police burgle Verizon data centre

Criminals posing as policemen conned their way into a data centre near London's King's Cross station, tying up staff and stealing computing equipment, the Metropolitan Police said.

The theft was undertaken at 21:17(GMT) on Thursday when between three and five men, dressed as policemen, gained entry to the data centre by claiming there were reports of people on the roof of the building.

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The men tied up five members of staff at the data centre before stealing computing equipment that included motherboards, said a Metropolitan Police statement.

Police officers were called to the data centre by a member of staff at 22:06(GMT). The staff members were unhurt but one had to be treated at the scene for shock.

There have been no arrests yet but the investigation into the incident has been transferred from Camden Criminal Investigation Department to the Serious and Organised Crime Command (SCD7), which has "a greater capacity for specialist investigations", according to a Metropolitan Police spokesperson.

The data centre is run by telecommunications company Verizon Business, sources close to the situation confirmed.

At the time of writing, Verizon could not confirm the value of the equipment stolen or whether any of its clients had suffered downtime or loss of data due to the incident.

Verizon Business said on Thursday at approximately 21:17(GMT) its data centre had "experienced an equipment related incident".

A Verizon statement said: "Verizon Business services remained operational during this period. Verizon Business continues to work with all appropriate groups in undertaking a thorough investigation of the incident. It is not appropriate to comment further at this time."

Reports circulating on the internet last week that JPMorgan, a customer of Verizon Business, had been affected by the burglary were incorrect, according to a source at the investment bank. There has been no loss of service or data, said the source.

In October 2006 another London data centre, owned by Level 3, was broken into. Several router cards were stolen in that incident, which severely disrupted voice and data communications in the capital.

Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet.co.uk