A spate of thefts of plant, farm and construction equipment has occurred around South Holland in the last few days, police have said.
Incidents have been reported in Crowland, Long Sutton, Moulton Seas End and West Pinchbeck as well as Wyberton in Boston district over the weekend.
Thousands of pounds worth of GPS satellite equipment, a mini tractor, a twin-axle trailer, 2 JCB digger buckets, insulation, metal trackway and diesel have been stolen, Lincolnshire Police say.
There was also an attempted theft of a digger.
“These thefts can be devastating for the owners; it disrupts their business and livelihood,” a spokesman for Lincolnshire Police said. “We’re asking owners of similar equipment across the county to take extra security measures, please make sure equipment is secured as far as possible, security cameras are clean and working, footage is recorded and saved.
“When plant, farming or gardening equipment is stolen, the only way we’re going to be able to return it is if we can identify the equipment and know who it belongs to.”
“We urge anyone who owns equipment that may be targeted to follow our advice to ‘Mark it, record it and secure it’. This will aid recovery but also allow us to record crimes and prosecute offenders. We must be able to prove items have been stolen to prosecute offenders. Without the relevant details to identify that a particular piece of equipment is stolen we cannot proceed.
“The difference in outcome at court between someone charged with a couple of offences or 20 plus offences can be significant and result in meaningful sentences that keep criminals off our streets.
“We hate nothing more than having to return property that could be stolen but we cannot identify it.”
Police have issued the following advice on how equipment should be catalogued.
Agricultural or plant Machinery
- Photo of the whole item
- The make, model and colour.
- ID plate making sure to capture the Chassis number
- Photo of any unique features
- Details of any third-party security marking
Trailers
- Photo of the whole item
- The make, model and colour.
- ID plate making sure to capture the Serial number
- Photo of the ‘CUT IN’ chassis number
- Photo of any unique features
- Details of any third party security marking
Caravan
- Photo of the whole item
- The make, model and colour.
- ID plate making sure to capture the Chassis number
- Photo of any unique features
- Details of any third party security marking
- Details of the Cris number
Power tools
- Photo of the whole item
- The make, model and colour.
- ID plate making sure to capture the Serial number
- Photo of any unique features
- Details of any third party security marking
A police spokesman continued: “As always, we would urge anyone with the above equipment to consider security marking through companies such as Datatag who currently provide the Cesar Scheme. The CESAR Scheme is the official Police and Home Office approved plant and equipment registration scheme backed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council – NPCC.
“The CESAR scheme was designed by Police Officers working in partnership with the Construction and Agricultural industries. There is security marking available for Construction and Agricultural machines, Plant machine attachments, Power tools, Compact machines and ATV machines.”
