Ken German, past president of IAATI UK, writes of agricultural theft; an everyday story of country folk.
Even the Archers, well known family from Barchester could not avoid having a storyline or two related to the theft of livestock and tractors plus falling victim to the fly tippers etc. The real cost of farming with the machinery, vehicles and equipment now being valued by the insurance world (according to who you ask) at between £122,000 and £161,500 every day. Popular items taken by the thieves are the ATV or quad bikes valued at £6,300 a day and Livestock another £6,600 every day.
Most farmsteaders and smallholders admit to feeling vulnerable and believe the focus of the thieves is on them, understandable as 69 per cent of them have indeed fallen victims to crime in the last year alone and that’s just those who bothered to report the crime.
The emotional and financial strain on each farmer has now found many of them digging trenches and earth banks around their pseudo-fortresses, erecting braziers and look outs, reinforcing gates and fences, operating single entry-exit points and buying more dogs and geese as additional alarm systems reverting back to all intents and purposes to basic feudal style protection to save their property, tools and vehicles. This stress is suggested to cost each farmer, whether victim or not £4,800 annually.
That said the farmers’ financial plight appears to be often overshadowed by the construction industry dealing with the annual theft of an even more comprehensive pool of odd shaped vehicles and equipment, calculated as a staggering and simply astronomical £2.19m every day!
Most working in either of these industries have heeded advice to mark their equipment, vehicles and tools with extra identification, clearly good advice should they be recovered by police and by fitting the cop’s new very effective cop’s best friend, the tracking device. Employees and those who are self-employed however are reporting their operational equipment (tools) stolen before they even get to their workplace having found their transport with doors hanging off, windows smashed and nothing inside left to work with.
Some 89,000 motor vehicles including motorcycles are stolen every year; that’s 243 a day. The vehicle crime list goes on with each interest group from motorhomes to mobility scooters and off road leisure vehicles to HGVs and their loads all being part of a grand total of £5m of motorised vehicles and equipment stolen in the UK every day! This does not include an estimated 20pc of all that mentioned above that does not make its way onto the Police National Computer (PNC)!
The idiosyncrasies of each sector however make it not always possible for any ‘one solution to fit all’ yet ambassadors of each are continually expressing an urgent interest in any new crime prevention idea that is created.
Many of these like-minded people will be attending a five day International Vehicle Crime conference in Glasgow between September 15 and 20, 2019 to present their ideas and solutions to what has become a global problem.
The International Association of Auto Theft Investigators (IAATI) is known throughout the world as a strategic player in all things to do with vehicle crime and it enjoys the membership of the police, law enforcement and government agencies, local authorities, insurers, manufacturers as well as aftermarket suppliers, those within the motor industry tackling organised vehicle crime, and trusted organisations who operate as service providers, or deal with intelligence, enforcement, prevention, and disruption activities.
All have a part to play in reducing vehicle crime even though ‘traditional’ vehicle crime, such as theft of or from vehicles is no longer regarded as a policing priority by most forces. That said the above conference will concentrate on the increase in the use of electronic theft methods, vehicles in acquisitive crimes, such as burglary, supporting serious and organised crime, and potential links to terrorist offences.
Topics discussed at the conference will be construction industry and plant theft, aftermarket security issues and solutions, motorcycles, classic car thefts, agricultural equipment and rural crime, marine theft, cybercrime/vehicle crime, vehicle crime and the drug industry, vehicle crime and people trafficking, vehicle finance fraud, vehicle insurance fraud, vehicle and identity fraud, vehicle tracking, whole of vehicle marking and vehicle repatriation.
Whatever part you play in reducing vehicle crime you will find senior practitioners, opinion formers, police officers, those on intuitive projects, vehicle examiners and a healthy cross section of key players from the car, motorcycle, plant, agricultural, haulage, leisure, salvage, IT, insurance and manufacturing industries to either network with or showcase your business to.
If you are interested in attending, presenting or running a trade stand look at the http://www.iaati.org.uk/ website and contact [email protected] or Mike Briggs, IAATI UK president, at [email protected] for an application form or brochure.
