Farmers stealing each other’s sheep – police commissioner
Farmers and others in the rural community need to start informing on their colleagues if police are to get a grip on livestock rustling, a police chief has said.
Arfon Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales Police, said it was a myth that all livestock raiders come from outside the region.
He said that in many cases the culprits can be found closer to home – within the rural community itself.
The commissioner, who was brought up on a farm near Harlech, is urging rural residents to report any suspicious behaviour.
He spoke out at Dolgellau livestock market, where North Wales Police’s pioneering rural crime team was liaising with its new Dyfed-Powys counterparts.
Mr Jones said: “The people who steal livestock are not from Birmingham or Manchester, they are often from within the rural community itself. They know how to herd sheep together in the middle of the night and where to sell them.
“These people are in the community or are connected in some way to agriculture. I think people in rural communities very often have a pretty good idea who the thieves are and where they go. They need to have the confidence to give this information to the police.”
Each year around 1,000 livestock – mostly sheep but also some cattle and other animals – are reported stolen in north Wales.
In the past week, 20 Texel X ewes have disappeared from a padlocked field near Llanllyfni, Gwynedd, while two Zwartbles lambs were taken from a field in nearby Clynnog Fawr in mid-September.
Rob Taylor, team manager of the north Wales rural crime team, said rustling statistics usually peak in autumn when sheep are gathered off the mountains.
It was only then that farmers realised flock numbers were down and ewes may be missing.
“It’s often a difficult crime to investigate,” he said. “It’s not like a residential burglary – you may be chasing a crime that was committed two months earlier.”
When investigating reported livestock thefts, police usually keep an open mind. Crime is often a factor, but some sheep simply go missing of their own accord and fraudulent claims are not unknown.
The issue is one of two – the other being livestock worrying – flagged up by a national working group chaired by Mr Taylor which is looking at potential legislative and management solutions.
Having investigated rustling cases for more than five years, Mr Taylor is aware that the crime – especially when committed on a large scale – usually requires insider knowledge.
“It’s not an easy offence to detect,” he admitted. “If someone is in a field loading sheep into a trailer wearing a flat cap, Barbour jacket and wellies, no-one would be suspicious unless you happened to be the owner driving past.”
According to the regions’ police and crime commissioners (PCC), joint working between north and mid Wales will create a consolidated approach towards rural crime.
In recent weeks members of the north Wales rural crime team have been helping Dyfed-Powys Police launch an equivalent initiative.
Recently the two teams came together at Dolgellau livestock mart, where the fledgling partnership was saluted by their respective PCCs.
Dyfed-Powys PCC Dafydd Llywelyn said: “In north Wales, we have seen the value of putting in specific resources to target rural areas.
“Through this partnership, we want to build on that success – three-quarters of the land mass of Wales now has dedicated officers responding to rural crime.”
The north Wales team has been sharing expertise on issues such as predictive data analysis, the use of hi-tech drones and harnessing online channels of communication.
But its key message has been the value of engaging with local rural communities and building trust with local farmers.
Evidence of the success of this approach came via an ad hoc Twitter poll in which 77% of respondents backed the work of the north Wales team.
Both main farming unions in Wales are also happy to have more boots on the ground, along with officers who have specialist knowledge.
PC Dewi Evans, a member of the north Wales team, said the teams were integrating well.
“To all intents and purposes, we’re going to be the same team – we’ll all be working closely together,” he said.