Lockdown movement restrictions, police rural crime teams, and increased farm security helped to curb crime over the pandemic, with most parts of the UK seeing an overall decrease in cost.
NFU Mutual, which offers insurance to the farming community, estimates that rural theft cost the UK £43.3m in 2020, a 20% decrease on the previous year.
While the number of theft claims went down during lockdown, thieves struck harder as the average cost rose to £4,425 – up from £4,128 in 2019.
However, skilled and highly-organised criminals continued to plague farmyards during the pandemic, stealing tractor GPS systems, high value quad bikes and ATVs worth millions of pounds.
The cost of agricultural vehicle theft claims reported to NFU Mutual remained high at £9.1m as gangs capitalised on the countryside. GPS theft cost £2.9m almost twice last year’s figure, while Quad and ATV theft cost £2.5m.
In a bid to make quads more easily identifiable, rural police forces across the UK including Breconshire Police (pictured) have been marking quads with SelectaDNA so that if they are stolen and recovered by police, they can be traced back to the individual farmer
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