Farmers use hi-tech security as thieves make hay in rural areas

FARMERS are spending tens of thousands on hi-tech security to protect land and equipment as they claim police are failing to investigate rural crimes.

Advanced cameras and private patrols are being set up to detect thieves on farmland in England.

A farms insurer estimated more than £40million of goods had been stolen in rural areas last year, amid a rise in thefts from agricultural machinery.

Luke Palmer from Cambridgeshire told the BBC he had spent tens of thousands improving security, including hiring night patrols to guard crops.

He claimed he had stopped reporting thefts to police after a slew of crimes in the last year, including burglaries, cable and diesel theft and fly-tipping.

“We feel very let down,” he said. “We’ve got high value theft going on, and there’s very few being caught.”

Cambridgeshire Constabulary told the broadcaster it had thoroughly investigated the one crime report made in the last year from the farm, but that it could only investigate crimes when they are reported. Mark Wild, who runs a firm that installs CCTV, said that rural crime had risen to “ridiculous” levels after lockdown restrictions eased.

He said a client had recently bought a £50,000 system to protect his crops, fuel and machinery which included three automated gates and surveillance systems that send notifications to the landowner when a vehicle or person enters his fields.

Mr Wild said: “The biggest thing we are doing is not only CCTV, [it’s] verbal voice alarms, flashing lights and instant notifications to farmers so they can talk through the Tannoy.”

Rebecca Davidson, at NFU Mutual insurers, said the issue had become “more organised and on a larger scale” with “gangs working nationally and internationally targeting agricultural machinery in particular”.

“We estimate rural theft cost over £40million last year but behind that number is the disruption to agriculture, the anxiety faced by farmers and their families to know that people have not just targeted their place of work but in many cases their homes,” she said.

Police data revealed suspects were almost 25 per cent more likely to be charged in urban areas last year. In rural areas, 31,411 were charged for 455,845 recorded crimes in 2021, a rate of 6.89 per cent, the broadcaster reported.

The proportion in urban areas, where 325,727 charges were handed out for 3,809,865 offences, was nearly a quarter higher at 8.55 per cent.

The Home Office said: “The rural and wildlife crime strategy published in September will provide a framework through which policing and its partners can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats.”