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