Combined Industries Theft Solutions

POLICE AND INDUSTRY CONTINUE TO WORK IN PARTNERSHIP TO COMBAT CRIME

The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and partners, held a ‘police-only’ training event at the bi-annual Plantworx exhibition at Newark Showground.

On the 23rd September 2025, a CITS ‘police-only’ training event took place on the opening morning of the Plantworx exhibition, the event which runs for three days, showcases a mix of live demonstrations and the latest construction equipment and technology.

The CITS police training event took place in the shows pavilion with the support of the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), and was hosted in conjunction with the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT), Police liaison officers of the official CESAR Scheme, and representatives of Cantrack Global, NFU Mutual, Leica, Hitachi, Clancy’s and J Murphy & Son’s.

The specialist training event welcomed over 60 police officers from regional and specialist police forces. The full days training was opened by both, CITS chairman Ian Elliott, the Group Head of Security for the utility company Clancys, and Supt. Andrew Huddleston of NCATT.

These invaluable events are aimed to highlight the current threats and the importance of working in partnerships to tackle crime, in particular to the construction and agricultural sectors.

The training was delivered by both specialist police training officers and industry experts, a specialist briefing was given by international police liaison officer, DS Chris Piggott, of NCATT and Police Liaison officers on behalf of the official CESAR Scheme, a special briefing was also given by John Musset, Director of Investigations at Cantrack Global, and Kirsty Hyslop of leading insurer NFU Mutual. The trainers all taught officers about the current threats and risks associated to Construction and Agricultural machinery theft and highlighted techniques to identify stolen machinery, rogue equipment movements, and common tricks used by criminal gangs who are targeting industry. 

These specialist training event are also supported by the Home Office industry scheme, CESAR, the number one identification marking system used by Police to easily identify ownership of plant and machinery used on both farms and construction sites. Officers also had the opportunity to learn about the new RAPID search application. The recently launched RAPID (Registered Assets Police Information Database) system is a powerful web-based search tool designed to significantly enhance the speed and efficiency of plant and machinery identification. With advanced mobile technology, RAPID enables officers to access the CESAR Database of over 650,000 registered assets directly from their smartphones, allowing for quick identification of stolen property and swift progress in investigations.

CITS Chairman Ian Elliott commented on the success of the day; “Today’s event was another great success and we are delighted to continue to support officers with their further training, the feedback I have received from the officers who attended, really highlights the importance of these specialist CITS police training events, which help support all national police forces to tackle the organised criminal gangs, who are making theft a huge problem for farmers and industry.”

CITS work in partnership with police, crime-fighting organisations and machinery manufacturers to provide officers with the knowledge and detection techniques to combat equipment theft, in order to be one step ahead of the criminals. The training events are invaluable, particularly at a time when police resource is stretched.

CITS, an industry forum comprising of representatives from the Home Office, Police, Insurers and Industry will continue to host a series of further, free to attend, police only training events. Officers should register their interest for future events, with faye@cits.uk.com.

The next training event will take place on the 6th November, hosted by JCB, in Staffordshire.