Thames Valley Police (TVP) yesterday (28th July) seized a JCB telehandler, as part of a complex police investigation into Modern Day Slavery offences in Wantage. The telehandler was identified as stolen from the Wiltshire area in 2008.

CITS and their crime fighting partners have identified an increase in theft, recent reports have shown an increase in the value of items being stolen compared to last year. A particular problem currently is the theft of Tractors and other large plant.

CITS partners NAVCIS in conjunction with Northumbria Police and CITS security member Can Track Global, have recovered a stolen Hamm HD12 Roller which was seized in Romania. The machine at the time was being used to construct a road over there.

CITS partners NAVCIS earlier this month followed up some intelligence, which led them to a seller of a Thwaites Dumper and a Kubota Excavator in Dorset. Both machines subsequently were seized for examination and have turned out to have been stolen from Surrey in 2019.

The Thieves were out and about last night (27 July) in West Yorkshire, Two machines were stolen including a Thwaites dumper truck from the Wakefield area.

Another successful recovery from CITS member, John Mussett of CanTrack Global. John has today recovered a roller which thieves had hidden in woodland.

The owner of the previously reported GAP machine has now been found. CITS were alerted of an ex GAP machine which has been found in the back of a stolen van in Bedfordshire. The machine which was sold back in 2013 was found but had no new keeper details identified.

The COVID 19 epidemic continues to bring a significant increase in the theft of plant and equipment and an increase in recovery operations by CITS supporters and partners.

Ian Elliott, CITS Vice Chairman and UK group head of security for utility services and construction specialist, Clancy Docwra recently gave journalist Peter Haddock some expert advice - fighting back against the plant theft lockdown boom - the second in the podcast 'fighting theft'.

CITS have been alerted by the Construction Plant Association (CPA) that there has been another stolen plant report, this time a Karcher towable HDS 17/20 pressure washer/bowser.

CITS are appealing to equipment dealers, plant hire companies and to the whole industry to stay alert!! Geith Warehouse in Deeside, outside Liverpool have echoed this alert after they were broken into on Friday evening (22nd May).

A theft has been reported to CITS member's the Construction Plant Association that on late Saturday 23rd / Sunday 24th of May. The following items were stolen from Laverick Plant's Moulton depot, near Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire.

This Scania lorry and low loader with 20 tonne Komatsu tractor on the back, was stolen at 4am this morning (23rd May 2020) from Boreham, Essex.

A machine stolen 3 days ago in Hertfordshire has been recovered.

The Can Track Asset tracker went live after the theft was reported this morning in North Kent.

6 tractors were stolen from Cassington in Oxfordshire between 22.00 - 06.00 this morning (21st May 2020) as follows:

• AD19 OBE - VIN: HACT7210TKE106179
  Datatag-24AW8S
• AD19 OBF - VIN: HACT7210AKE106224
  Datatag-27AW8H
• AE19 EJZ - VIN: HACT7210VKE106223
  Datatag-34AW8S
• AE19 EJV - VIN: HACT7210TKE106084
  Datatag-40AW8S
• AE19 EJL - VIN: HACT7210JKE106008
  Datatag-34AW60
• HX19 BVL - VIN: HACT7210VKE101281
  Datatag-44AU6Z

CITS police representative Chris Piggott has recovered yet more stolen items, this includes 6 caravans and 2 trailers. Chris was alerted by security experts Tracker that a caravan had been stolen from the Derbyshire area and was heading in the direction of Warwickshire.

5 more machines all fitted with CESAR have been recovered this week. They were stolen from the UK and shipped to Poland.

A digger stolen 6 years ago whilst works were being carried out on a police station has been discovered and easily identified thanks to the industries CESAR scheme. The recovery will enable the insurance company to recover some of their pay out costs from the sale of the machine!

CITS member Automatrics were contacted by one of their plant hire customers to report a Takeuchi TB230 stolen overnight from a worksite close to Highfield south of Sheffield.

Automatrics were contacted by a plant hire customer reporting a Kubota K008-3 Micro Digger stolen from a work site south of Frodsham Golf Course in Cheshire.

Stephen Redfern and Gareth Townley from Lancaster, using mobile numbers 07404 069950 and 07404 070376 are arranging plant hires for delivery to empty premises - usually advertised for let.

They are then stealing the plant.

FRAUDSTER - BRIGHTON

We have had someone trying to book a 3-tonne Excavator against a customer's account, but they weren't an employee of the customer.

LANCASHIRE POLICE UPDATE

Lancashire have an investigation running that is very much live and current. On 29/04/20 we were notified of plant equipment worth around £80,000 having been stolen by way of fraudulent hire in the West Yorkshire area.

In April of this year NaVCIS, received communication from the Construction Plant Hire Association, (CPA) describing a series of offences of fraud and theft of plant reported by his members that had occurred in both 2019 and 2020.

During the last fortnight, there has been a marked increase in plant and tool theft from both vehicles and site compounds. The sharp spike in thefts is largely due to construction firms and contractors temporarily scaling down work and shutting jobsites due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Time to fight back against Plant Theft: Police Liaison specialist Nick from Datatag ID Ltd explains how sophisticated criminal gangs are working to steal equipment and what we can do to stop them.

In these challenging times, the Combined Industries Theft Solutions Board (CITS) and its associated members, have been reporting an increase in the number of plant and agricultural equipment thefts and fraud events that have been occurring during the lockdown period.

Information from members of the farming community has played a vital role in two recent operations involving Warwickshire Police and the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) which led to the recovery of a treasure trove of machinery worth hundreds of thousands of pounds which had been stolen from farms across the UK.

We're hearing the word 'un-precedented' a great deal currently. These are indeed challenging times, and thieves never fail to take their opportunity in times of uncertainty.

We've seen strong levels of theft this year, and even as construction sites are starting to close operations as i write this, our Investigations Unit are still active and recovering stolen plant and commercial vehicles. We are currently deemed as an essential service due to our activity reducing crime.

These are some testing times for us all at the moment - as the coronavirus emergency seems to be affecting everyone's lives and livelihood.

Last week we decided to postpone the next PLANTWORX show from next year to 14th-16th June 2022. When we set up the show on behalf of the industry this was done on the basis of it being held in alternating years with the Hillhead Exhibition (Buxton). This was because the two events have a number of exhibitors and visitors in common and a more crowded exhibition programme was not what our members and their customers wanted.