Organised farm gangs cause spike in cost of rural crime

Sheep farmer Andrew Houstoun from Perthshire fell victim to thieves in November who stole a quad bike worth about £8,000

The cost of rural crime in Scotland has risen by 44% with organised gangs targeting farm machinery, a report says.

NFU Mutual's annual assessment says the theft of tractors, quad bikes and livestock cost £2.3m in 2019.

Despite the sharp rise, the cost of rural crime in Scotland remains below the UK average.

Police say their rural crime strategy provides a clear focus on tackling serious organised crime.

Scotland has seen the highest percentage increase in the cost of rural crime of all the UK's nations and regions.

'Increased during pandemic'

Across the UK as a whole, rural theft cost £54m which is 9% higher than the previous year and the highest in eight years.

But there is concern that rural crime has increased throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Tractors and other machinery have been targeted by organised criminals

Mark McBrearty, NFU Mutual regional manager for Scotland, said: "We're very concerned that rural crime is taking an increasing toll on the Scottish countryside at a time when Covid-19 is putting huge extra pressure on everyone's lives and farmers are working flat out to feed the nation.

"Provisional theft claims data for the first half of 2020 indicates that while rural theft fell overall during the early part of pandemic lockdown, we're now seeing signs that thieves are becoming more active again."

'Higher value items'

Sheep farmer Andrew Houstoun from Perthshire fell victim to thieves in November who stole a quad bike worth about £8,000.

He believes a criminal gang had been watching the farm by drone in the days before the bike was taken by a man in a balaclava.

Livestock was also stolen but machinery theft resulted in insurance claims being for higher values

He told BBC Scotland: "It just proves that nobody's safe and that technology's all very accessible and very easy to use nowadays.

"You don't need to be a whizz kid to get your hands on that stuff and suss out buildings. The police even said they could have watched you put the keys away to see where you hide them, to access workshops or buildings or whatever."

Police Scotland said the number of incidents appeared to be broadly stable but the value of the items being stolen had risen.

Insp Alan Dron said: "There has not been a significant rise in additional crimes occurring in rural communities but those which have been committed have resulted in higher value claims, supporting evidence that increasingly serious organised crime groups are targeting and influencing rural crime.

"We have the capability to stop people intent on committing crimes, disrupt them in any way we can plus been able to put some prolific criminals behind bars."