RURAL crime figures have increased in Wiltshire and across the UK.
Read here for what the criminals are after:
QUADS AND ATVS
• Quads and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) are disappearing from farms in large numbers – thanks to being easy to transport and absence of registration plates
• The cost of Quad and ATV theft claims to NFU Mutual rose to £3.1m in 2019 – a rise of 21%
• Smaller, more portable equipment such as quads and ATVs continued to be a target for thieves under Coronavirus
• Bespoke physical security devices, such as Quad Vice, can deter opportunist thieves
• CESAR marking and tracking devices are the most effective security measures, once basic measures of removing keys and keeping vehicles out of sight in a building with the machine secured have been addressed
LAND ROVER DEFENDERS
• Land Rover Defenders remain highly desirable to thieves with Land Rover Defenders insured by NFU Mutual stolen in 2019 at a claims cost of £2.1m.
• However, while at least four Defender thefts a week were being reported in January 2020, numbers fell from March to June
• Trackers, alarms and storing vehicles out of sight help deter thieves from stealing these British icons
TRACTORS
• The cost of agricultural vehicle theft claims to NFU Mutual rose by nearly 25% to £9.3m in 2019
• Thieves are increasingly cloning the identity of tractors to make detection more difficult
• Thieves are stealing expensive tractors costing over £50,000 for export to developed counties and small, older tractors to export to third world countries
• NFU Mutual goes to extreme lengths to trace and recover stolen kit and in one operation with Navcis earlier in 2020 four tractors and a farm loader worth £108,000 were traced to Poland and brought back to the UK.
LIVESTOCK
• The cost of livestock theft reported to NFU Mutual increased by 9% to £3m in 2019
• Although rustling dropped at the start of the year, initial figures suggest nearly a 15% increase in cost year on year in April as thieves targeted farms under lockdown
• Technology - including DNA testing, fleece marking with micro-dots, electronic chips and boluses - now offers robust evidence to help bring rustlers to justice
• Thefts of large numbers of lambs are raising concerns that stock is being stolen for slaughter and processing outside regulated abattoirs before illegally entering the food chain
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