Turn your farm into a fortress!
Farmers fight back against rural crime gangs by building miles of 3ft-high earthworks around fields
WHEN Harry Acland patrols his remote Cotswolds estate each morning, he does so safe in the knowledge that his home really is his castle.
The Notgrove Estate, which has been in his family since 1969, is a picturesque swath of traditional farmland perched high on the rolling Gloucestershire hills.
Yet much of it is surrounded not by the hedges or ditches you might expect, but by a system of 3ft-high earthworks.
The reason? To keep out crime gangs who target the countryside to burgle homes, raid farm equipment, joy-ride on farmland and steal livestock.
To the horror of farmers, some animals have even been butchered on the spot and sold on the black market.
So serious is the situation that Gloucestershire Police has set up a special operation to encourage farms to build mud walls, known as bunds, to keep out vehicles and protect their land. Indeed, The Mail on Sunday understands that at next week’s
National Wildlife Crime Enforcers Conference, senior officers will suggest that farmers around the country build bunds to repel criminals.
Mr Acland decided to protect his farm after a spate of robberies. ‘More organised gangs are targeting rural areas because they think there are easy pickings,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.
‘They brazenly move from county to county. When I was offered the chance to have bunds it made a lot of sense. If your neighbour has got them and the criminal gangs will not drive over his land, then you know they will drive over your land.
‘There is clearly a gang operating in the area. In the past three weeks we have been done three times. We have had outbuildings and vehicles broken into, with things stolen.
‘Earlier this month they stole a loader from a local farm and used it to ram-raid the service station cash machine. They had already slashed the tyres on police cars so they could not follow them.
‘I am putting up electric gates. We have digital cameras in all the farmyards, even if they are useless because the gangs use false number plates. I have hidden trackers on all my vehicles.
‘You are not dealing with idiots. We have chased them across our fields but it is fun for them and they are amazing drivers.’
The bund scheme, known as Operation Firefly, was developed by PC Ash Weller, of the Gloucestershire force. ‘Hedgerows, dry stone walls and fences are not really cost effective,’ he said. ‘The only thing that has stood the test of time is these bunds.’
Gloucestershire farmers have now built nearly seven miles of mud walls with the help of a waste management firm, which has been happy to provide the earth. The scheme has cost farmers such as Mr Acland nothing. Moreover, the mud walls soon attract an abundance of wildflowers and grasses.
Police believe criminal gangs have been drawn to the countryside because of the severity of budget cuts in rural police forces.
In same instances, crooks use mobile abattoirs and professional slaughtermen to move quickly through rural areas late at night. They round up sheep and cattle, which they kill and dismember on the spot.
Since February, more than 700 lambs, sheep and ewes have been butchered in fields across the Midlands. And in recent months, police forces have begun to use drones to combat this and other rural crime. There is also a lucrative international trade in stolen farm vehicles, with gangs stealing £100,000 tractors and quadbikes, and transporting them to Eastern Europe.
Illegal hare coursing – also on the rise – is associated with international gangs. As much as £30,000 can be gambled on just one ‘meet’.
Chief Inspector Phil Vickers, of Li ncolnshire Poli ce, who has national responsibility for stamping out hare coursing, believes the law needs to be changed. ‘In Lincolnshire, we experience offenders trespassing on farmland using greyhounds to chase hares, sometimes for entertainment. Some live-stream it and some gamble,’ he said.
‘Hare coursers don’t think twice about damage caused to crops or fields, and they threaten anyone who might get in their way.
‘ If convicted, a hare courser might expect a fine of £50 to £200 but that does not dissuade people. They know the chances of getting caught is relatively limited.
‘And the law does not allow magistrates to cause the forfeiture of the dog. We end up giving them back their dogs, which is bizarre.’
‘We chase the gangs over fields but it’s fun for them’