Rural crime claim costs drop by a third in county

Dave Eardley had a £40,000 loader stolen from his farm in March

The cost of rural crime fell by more than a third in Shropshire last year, new figures have shown.

In its latest report, NFU Mutual (NFUM) shows the cost of claims last year fell by 35%, from £3.6m in 2022 to £2.4m in 2023, in contrast to a 4.3% rise in England as a whole.

David Harrison, from NFUM, said the real concern was the impact on farmers, who lived on targeted farms with their families.

Thieves stole a £40,000 loader from Dave Eardley's farm near Market Drayton in March, and despite the new figures, he believes rural crime is "out of control."

"I don’t think that we should be victims in our own home, where we have to lock everything up," he told BBC Midlands Today.

"There may have been more people here that we’re not aware of in the night, or even in the day."

Dave Eardley managed to get a replacement loader 10 days later

Mr Eardley described rural crime as "rife".

"Different areas are targeted, it might've gone down in this region, and up in others," he said.

Rural crime includes theft of vehicles, livestock, fuel, dogs attacking farm animals, fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping.

NFUM believes the reduction in Shropshire is due to an "increasingly co-ordinated response" to crime, but said criminals were becoming more sophisticated.

Across the wider Midlands, there was also a reduction, but at 6.7% drop in the cost of claims.

Police forces operation

Andrew Chalk, from NFU Mutual, said although the statistics were great news for Shropshire, it was important not to get complacent.

"£2.3m is still very high, that's still lots of farmers being preyed upon," he said.

He added that NFUM was seeing larger claims as a result of crime becoming more organised.

"There is an increasingly coordinated response to the threat of rural crime, we’re hoping that that is actually bearing dividends in helping to drive down the numbers," he said.

Graham Donaldson, from West Mercia Police, said working with other agencies was helping to reduce rural crime

The report showed that nationally, the number of agricultural vehicle thefts had fallen, whereas thefts of GPS units rose by 137%.

Graham Donaldson, of West Mercia Police, believed a multi-agency approach was helping to reduce crime.

"We’ve had a long running operation with colleagues at Dyfed-Powys Police and North Wales Police, which we called Operation Gander, which was targeting known criminals who specialise in thieving rural equipment."

"By police forces working together with NFU Mutual, and the NFU itself, it’s a lot easier to track crime when we’ve got the assistance of partner agencies."