Farm Machinery Thefts on the Increase

In May 2010 a Cumbrian judge handed out an unusually long prison sentence on Robert Mickle, who along with his accomplice, Christopher Steele, came especially from County Durham to a farm in Cumbria to steal a cattle truck.

On passing the 16-month prison sentence on Mickle, Judge Paul Batty QC said he hoped to deter other such criminals by giving a long sentence and vowed to do what he could to stop Cumbria farms being targeted by criminals out to steal expensive farm machinery.

On sentencing Mickle and Steele for the theft of a cattle lorry worth £6,000 the Judge said :

“Farmers in Cumbria all too often have their extremely valuable equipment stolen by gangs who have absolutely no regard for the farming community and absolutely no regard for the loss and distress that this kind of offence can have to their livelihoods and also to the farmers’ animals.

I have to consider as the resident judge here in Carlisle the effect of this kind of offence on the rural community in Cumbria.”

The pair were caught when they were spotted by police and chased through Penrith town centre, eventually crashing on a tight corner. Both men pleaded guilty, although tried to say that someone else had stolen the lorry and then given it to them later.

It has recently been reported that farms across the UK are being targeted by gangs of thieves out to steal farm machinery of high value. Tractors are stolen to order and in 2008 machinery worth £36 million. The theft of farm machinery is a lucrative business as the stolen goods are easy to sell on. There is not the same regulation for buying and selling heavy machinery and vehicles as there is for other vehicles and so it is easy for thieves to conceal stolen equipment and sell it on. Tractors and Quad bikes make up the most numbers of stolen farm machinery and the recession has increased the demand for various types farm machinery.

But thieves were quick to recognise new ways to cash in on the economic climate. When commodity prices rose in 2006 and 2007, there was a large increase in the theft of metal from farms, with farmers reporting pipes, gates and heavy machinery. When oil prices rose there was a 30% increase in incidents of red diesel being stolen from farms.

Farm machinery is also been stolen to order for export abroad. In 2007 farm machinery thefts rose by over 40% in England and much of this was the theft of high value tractors, stolen to order, often shipped immediately over the channel.

The NFU have stated that this increase in farm machinery theft is because of a shortage in the world of new machinery due to large scale investment in farming in Eastern Europe.

Tractors worth up to £100,000 each are being stolen, loaded on to containers or lorries and shipped abroad to be sold on quickly. In late 2008 stolen UK farm vehicles with a value of more than £200,000 were found in Poland, following a large investigation into the theft of high value farm machinery.

The tractors were stolen from Kent, Sussex, Berkshire and Hampshire but were seized by Polish police in the north of Poland, under a joint operation with Kent’s Serious Organised Crime Unit . Two men were arrested and charged with the theft.