Rural crime in the East Midlands has risen despite an overall decrease in the UK, as demonstrated by a recent survey by National Farmers Union.
In the UK, rural theft cost an estimated £37.8 million last year, which is 15% less than 2013’s high figure of £44.5 million.
The East of England remains the UK’s worst affected region, with rural crime costing an estimated £6.3 million.
Despite these statistics, the county adviser for the National Farmers Union in Nottingham, Andy Guy said: ‘There has been a £150 thousand decrease in rural crime in Nottinghamshire, from £1 million to around £850 thousand’.
He stated that whilst the NFU survey’s crime figures may appear high, it is due to the high cost of farm equipment such as tractors, which means that ‘just one tractor can account for a lot of the value’.
‘Livestock are now very difficult to steal as they are all tagged and therefore can only be sold for meat on the black-market as official markets rely on tags’.
– Andy Guy, county advisor for Nottingham NFU
Tractor thefts have decreased as a result of better security measures but there has been an increase in quad bike thefts of up to 80% in some regions.
Mr Guy said: ‘Whilst quad bikes are a lower value item by comparison to tractors, they are still targeted by thieves as they are easy to hide and to move on. On average they are worth five to six thousand pounds and are virtually untraceable when stolen, as they don’t have registration plates.’
‘This is completely different to the theft of tractors, which are often stolen to order and out of the country within a matter of hours’.
Video: Andy Guy, county advisor for NFU Nottingham discusses farm crime
Criminals are now using increasingly sophisticated means and technology, with communities also employing advanced security such as CCTV to better defend themselves from the threat of crime. Mr Guy said ‘cyber crime is a big threat to farmers just as it is for everyone in the community’.
