HUNDREDS of homes have been left without a working phone after thieves attempted to snatch vital cabling for scrap metal.

More than 300 phones lines across Orpington became disconnected in the early hours of October 17 when criminals cut cabling in Farnborough Hill, Farnborough, and attempted to pull out the underground lines.

According to police they failed to make off with the expensive metal wiring.

Thieves then struck again on October 20 in the same road, cutting the cabling for a second time but again fleeing the scene empty-handed.

Residents have been forced to use their mobiles while engineers attempt to fix the problem.

Many have had their landlines rerouted to their mobiles by BT, while internet services have also been affected.

Carolyn Dean, 51, of affected Cloonmore Avenue, Orpington, said: "I am now putting £15 on my mobile phone every single day. It really is the cost issue that is the problem.

"I have my son in Thailand who I need to contact, my other son's wife is in America and because the internet is not working we can't email them like usual.

"We have not been given a lot of information about the problem and when we do it proves to be wrong.

"BT first told us that it was our own problem and said that it could cost us £170 to fix it.

She added: "We have no idea what is happening or when it's going to get sorted out."

A spokesman for BT said: “We have installed 200 metres of new cable and our engineers have been working round the clock to reattach customers back to the network.

“Due to the nature of the incident this is labour intensive and time consuming work.

"It's difficult to give an exact date when we expect everyone's service to be fully restored, but one by one customers' service will come back.”