Organised crime gangs fuelling a JCB theft 'epidemic' across East Riding
Plant hire firms say thefts of vehicles such as JCBs and fork-lift trucks have hit epidemic proportions in the East Riding.
Crooks disable tracker devices then often load vehicles onto trucks and ship them abroad.
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Roger Hoe of Humberside Plant Hire Ltd has had two JCB's stolen, worth £30,000 each.
Trackers can reactivate weeks later, telling the owner their digger is in Turkey or the Middle East.
Roger Hoe, managing director at Humberside Plant, in Cottingham, said: "I've had two JCBs taken, worth £30,000 each, the last one was last Sunday afternoon near Elvington.
"One goes in the East Riding nearly every night. I had one stolen at Christmas, I checked the tracker and it was in Turkey."
Mike Barrett, director at Adplant, in Grovehill Road, Beverley, said: "We had a teleporter (similar to a fork-lift) taken in Beverley about a month ago. The tracker firm found it in a curtain-sided lorry.
"These are organised gangs. There was one stolen in Beverley. Thieves turned up in a low-loader and in high -visibility jackets."
In the latest theft, last Tuesday, a JCB telescopic handler was stolen from the Mariners Court building site, in Beckside, Beverley.
The tracking device was found dumped.
Hire firms say police are ineffective at catching the culprits or tracing vehicles.
DI Nigel Sawyer, based in Bridlington, said: "It's disappointing if any crime victim feels that way. There is a problem in this region, it's a form of organised crime but it's not unique to the East Riding. These pieces of kit are worth a lot of money.
"In the past couple of months a number of vehicles have been recovered, sometimes it's down to the police, but the majority have trackers on them.
"Two or three of our inquiries are ongoing. We recovered a JCB in West Yorkshire and arrested two men.
"The East Riding is a massive agricultural, area. This is the time of year when a lot of machinery is employed and thefts do go up, with criminals coming in from outside the area.
"Several of these vehicles have been driven along public roads and some must have been seen by members of the public.
"If anyone sees a JCB, or something similar, being driven at an unusual time of night, please ring 999."
Statistics from the Metropolitan Police's Plant and Agricultural National Intelligence Unit show the East Riding had 49 thefts of plant machinery between January and July this year, compared with 45 in the same period last year.
3 Comments
by phil, East Hull
Friday, July 30 2010, 11:30AM
“Steven, How do you know they were pikeys??? I have been aware that for years, plant machinery has been stolen to order to be shipped to Dubai, India, Pakistan, Saudi, etc etc as the prices over there are twice what they are here!! Large organised gangs who frequent these countires also get them over there and provide them to charities ! So your usual Mr Smith off the local site is not your main worry!!!”
by stephen, Tenerife
Thursday, July 29 2010, 7:11PM
“Thieving pikeys thats why the police dont do anything about it they are all called smith and dissapear when bailed you would ave thought mr hoe would have done his hair for the photo!!!!!”
by Diggin Thescene, Sandcastle
Thursday, July 29 2010, 9:15AM
“Another slow news day. This type of crime has been going on for years so much so, that the Police do not try to even find these machines. A friend of mine who owns a Plant Hire company in West Yorkshire suffered a spate of thefts of excavators and Telehandlers. The Police simply gave him a crime number for. When, due to a tracker which he had fitted to all of his machines he located one of his Telehandlers and took the law into his own hands in recovering his property, he was cautioned by the Police!”