The first person convicted under the state's new anti-copper theft law has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Faleifa Mauga, 39, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Steven Alm this morning.

He pleaded guilty last year to the theft charge and to criminal trespass.

Mauga was arrested by police last September at a Navy housing demolition site near the airport.

As the price of copper has risen, so has the number of thefts of the metal around the state, with thieves stripping wiring from highway lighting systems and tearing copper pipes and gutters from public and private buildings.

The new copper theft law, enacted last year, makes it a felony to steal a pound or more of copper.