A coordinated national policing response involving the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT), multiple police forces and the National Intelligence Unit OPAL has supported a Kent Police investigation into an alleged series of agricultural GPS thefts worth more than £170,000.
Two men have been charged with conspiracy to steal GPS systems following an investigation into thefts from tractors and other agricultural machinery across Kent during July and August.
As well as carrying out the enforcement action, Kent Police led the investigation, which formed part of a wider national response involving police forces affected by similar offending elsewhere in the country.
Judith Skilbeck, Police National Rural Crime Unit Co-ordinator, and NCATT supported the forces involved, helping to bring together the national response alongside OPAL and chairing operational co-ordination meetings as intelligence was shared between police teams.
Forces involved included Kent, Staffordshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire and Thames Valley Police, together with OPAL and NRCU/NCATT.
NCATT is supported by industry funding, including through the CEA (Construction Equipment Association) and the CEA-owned CESAR security and registration scheme.
The specialist team works across force boundaries on construction and agricultural equipment crime, supporting police where intelligence indicates organised offending operating across wider geographical areas.
Viki Bell of the CEA said: “This case shows the value of having a specialist national team able to support forces when equipment crime crosses police boundaries.
“NCATT’s work is supported by industry funding, including through the CEA and the CESAR scheme. Without that support, this level of specialist coordination and expertise would be much harder to sustain.”
The Kent investigation involved reported thefts from victims in Canterbury, Folkestone, Romney Marsh, Maidstone, Sheppey and Thanet.
At around 1.55am on 16 August, Kent Police officers pursued a vehicle of interest through the Dartford Tunnel before bringing it to a tactical stop after it left the tunnel on the Essex side.
Two men were arrested and several items of GPS equipment were seized.
Further enquiries then took officers to a property in Dagenham, east London, where another two men were arrested and a further GPS unit was recovered.
Ion Cojocaru, 33, and Iulian Doltu, 27, both of Honour Gardens, Dagenham, were subsequently charged with conspiracy to steal GPS systems.
Police released the other two men arrested at the Dagenham property on bail while enquiries continued.
Sergeant Ross Haybourne of Kent Police’s Rural Task Force said: "Rural crime frequently crosses county borders and it is therefore invaluable to have such strong working relationships with our law enforcement partners. This includes NCATT and NRCU, who support us on numerous operations and by sharing information and intelligence for crime trends and spikes across the UK.
"This allows us to get a step ahead of the criminals who target our farms and rural communities, helping us to make arrests, make significant seizures of stolen property and also bring offenders to justice before they have a chance to cause any further harm.
"GPS systems play a big part in modern day farming and when they are stolen it can have a significant impact on people’s livelihoods. Kent is not the first county to have been affected by such offences and it will not be the last, but by working together we can make it much more difficult for criminals to succeed."
The case also comes as agricultural GPS equipment is set to come within the scope of measures under the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act.
The Government has confirmed plans for secondary legislation covering property marking and database registration of certain new GPS and GNSS equipment used in agricultural and commercial settings.
The measures are intended to make stolen equipment easier for police to identify and trace back to its owner.
CESAR already combines security marking with registration on a police-accessible database and is widely used across the construction and agricultural machinery sectors.
The Kent operation highlights the link between preventative security measures, intelligence sharing and the specialist policing capability supported by industry funding.
For the CEA, it also demonstrates where that investment can make a practical difference, helping specialist teams work across force boundaries and supporting local officers tackling equipment theft on the ground.
