Drive to cut number of 4x4 thefts from farms

TV personality and journalist Jerry Thurston, an avid Land Rover enthusiast, will be helping launch a security marking system to combat recent thefts.

Over the past six months, 19 4x4s have been stolen, including a number of Land Rover Defenders owned by farmers, often by organised and opportunist thieves, who break them up and sell on the parts.

Last year 50 farmers signed up to a similar system to tackle thefts of agricultural equipment.

Rural community beat officer Pc Julie Turrell said: “Following the increase in thefts I visited the Land Rover owner show and spoke to people from the rural community about how the police can help them, and what security measures we can adopt to prevent these thefts.

“Last year Humberside Police launched Cesar, a security-marking system for farm equipment which has worked really well. Over 50 local farmers have taken up this initiative since its launch in November 2010.

“It seemed silly not to adopt a similar system for 4x4 vehicles.”

The Datatag system will be launched at the show on Wednesday.

Pc Turrell added: “Each vehicle owner will have an outlay of about £219 for each unit. However, the benefits outweigh the cost significantly. These include the use of visible and covert markings on the units, which is a real deterrent to would-be thieves, registration on a national scheme and often lower insurance premiums”.

The Datatag system gives each vehicle a unique and multi-layered “fingerprint” that cannot be removed by thieves – even if the vehicle is stolen and stripped for parts. The technology includes hidden radio-frequency identification transponders, which can be picked up by police scanners even if the registration and VI plates have been removed.