More tracker use aids recovery

Greater use of tracking securitydevicesontractors and quad bikes has helped Police Scotland recover stolen farm machinery worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Last year Police Scotland recovered tractors, quad bikes and other farm equipment valued at £893,000. The recoveries have continued in 2020 with 130 vehicles worth over £400,000 returned to their owners in the first four months of the year.

More farmers have been using CESAR marking and fitting Thatcham approved tracking systems to farm machinery – a move which has been helped by a premium discount offered by rural insurance specialists, NFU Mutual.

Inspector Alan Dron, Scotland Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) co-ordinator, said that increased use of tracking devices and the rural community links developed through the SPARC partnership had helped Police Scotland recover more stolen farm vehicles.

“This year SPARC’S focus is crime prevention – helping farmers make it much harder for criminals to steal through improved security measures and more effective use of rural watch schemes … more farmers are now fitting trackers which have resulted in us capturing more of the criminals involved.”

He said that Aberdeenshire, Lanarkshire and Lothians and the Borders regions were the most consistently targeted areas over the course of the year.

“This shows a clear route for our criminality as we now know a significant number of those committing rural crimes in Scotland are located in the North East of England – particularly the Cleveland/ County Durham areas.”

Dron said that while overall rural crime levels had fallen during Covid-19 restrictions, thieves were still targeting farm machinery, adding that while additional patrols were helping, the post-covid situation was unknown:

“We may see a slow increase, or a sudden surge as the financial impact of the pandemic cuts in for many people.”