A 26-year-old man from Essex has been arrested after six items of farm machinery and vehicles that had been reported missing over the past 12 months in the area, were seized at his premises in Hockley.
According to a police spokesman, Essex Police’s rural engagement team found a “telehandler; excavator; quad bike; industrial water bowser and pressure washer; twin-axle trailer; and two dumpster trucks”, all of which were seized on December 28, 2023.
The rural engagement team work with the national construction and agricultural theft team, to investigate the theft of farm machinery and equipment from farms and businesses.
The team launched in 2018, and has been responsible for the return of numerous pieces of farm machinery since.
Inspector Terry Jacobs of the rural engagement team said: “Our county is 72% rural, and that is a lot of ground to cover. Some communities are extremely isolated. It is our job to reach them, keep in-contact, and help identify issues which matter to them.
“Working with them, we can then tackle problems such as anti-social behaviour; fly-tipping; poaching and farm thefts. But we rely on people to tell us what their concerns are and to provide us with information.
“We can’t always act on that information immediately, but we use it to build a picture, and what you give us might provide the final piece of the jigsaw we need to make an arrest or issue a summons to court,” Jacobs explained.
Sergeant Ben Felton said that once one piece of stolen machinery has been located, it often leads to more being found.
“Once a vehicle is stolen, it will often be left in a secluded place for 24 to 48 hours to see if it has a tracker on it. The thieves will then check if it has been recovered,” Felton said.
A police spokesman added: “They recovered the telehandler and a van following an operation to detect stolen agricultural machinery being exported through Harwich International Port. They searched more than a hundred lorries waiting to board North Sea ferries.
“That operation saw the recovery of a £40,000 Manitou telehandler and a van.”
