Farmers promote tagging as answer to machinery thefts

Thefts of agricultural equipment cost the UK's farming industry 42.5m last year – after a 5.5 per cent increase in instances of tractors and other farm vehicles being stolen "to order" to feed a growing black market was reported.

The vehicles – which can be worth as much as 100,000 – are usually immediately exported. Overseas, they find willing buyers because of a worldwide shortage of farm machinery.

Now Humberside Police is promoting a high-technology security database that makes it harder for organised gangs to steal and export farm machinery.

Local farmers, Andrew Farnaby of Lakes Farm, Scorborough, Driffield, and father and son John and Edward Duggleby, of Beswick Hall, are each having one piece of equipment marked free of charge, but are paying for other items to be marked.

Cesar – which stands for Construction Equipment Security and Registration – was launched nationally a year ago and has already proved its worth, according to Tim Price from insurers NFU Mutual, with about 1m worth of machinery recovered so far, often in Poland.

Manufacturers have also agreed to start fitting it to new machinery.

Mr Price said: "The Cesar scheme puts a great big unique marking plate on the side of the tractor which is highly visible and which can be tapped into police databases to find out whether it has been stolen. That acts as a deterrent but it also has hidden electronic tags which are very hard for thieves to find."

This year's figures for farm machinery thefts are not available yet, but Mr Price said although he expected the numbers to continue to be "substantial", the good news was that more machinery was being recovered.

"The main route for exports of big expensive tractors seems to be Poland and then into eastern European countries and Russia. International tractor theft is international – we even had a tractor recovered in Australia," he said.

Mr Price said thieves turned to farm machinery after manufacturers toughened up security on luxury cars.

"Until recently all the tractors from one manufacturer could be started with one key. They (the criminals) opened up routes to export them and it was a while before people realised it was going on on a big scale.

"One of the main difficulties was that if police stopped a tractor at night they weren't inclined to start crawling underneath it and find the serial number and get covered in mud and worse."

The Dugglebys farm 550 acres at Beswick.

Although they've not fallen victim to crime, Edward Duggleby said he knew of quite a few people who had been. They are having four tractors and a baler marked up.

Mr Duggleby said: "It will give me peace of mind that my valuable equipment is better protected. It is concerning that so much kit can simply vanish."

Pc Julie Turrell, from Hornsea Police Station, said: "This is a valuable opportunity to work with our local rural community in an attempt to reduce rural crime.

"When a piece of farming equipment is stolen that piece of equipment not only costs the farmer thousands of pounds to replace but in some cases it can also completely bring a business to a close if the plant is a significant part of the day to day working of the farm.

"Many other forces are using Cesar as a tool to reduce plant theft and after many meetings with local farmers I pleased I have brought the scheme to our area," she said.

Pc Turrell can be contacted on 0845 606 0222.

Union and police introduce Cesar

NFU members can find out more about Cesar at a meeting in Beverley tonight at The Hall, Lairgate, at 6.30pm. Chris Harrison, from Cesar as well as Pc Turrell will be attending. Group secretary of the Beverley branch of the NFU Andrew Moss said: "We've had spates of quad bikes going missing, machinery, tools, all sorts of things going missing, and obviously tractors and other big items of plant."