WHO IS DOING IT?

Only a small proportion of rural crimes are opportunistic or committed by local people. “Much of it is committed by organised criminals who come to the countryside with a shopping list,” says Tim Price of NFU Mutual. “They are much more sophisticated when it comes to overcoming barriers, locks and technological defences.” North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan adds: “Criminals are staking out farms and stealing specialist machinery. They move from county to county as well as from abroad.”