The Combined Industries Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and partners, held a successful police training event at the offices of NFU Mutual, a leading agricultural insurer, in Tiddington, Stratford-upon-Avon.
On June 5th, the second CITS police training event of 2024 took place in conjunction with the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT), Police liaison officers of the official CESAR Scheme, representatives of Secured By Design (SBD), Leica, The Clancy Group, Hitachi, and leading Agricultural insurer NFU Mutual.
The special police training event hosted at NFU Mutual’s Head office in Stratford-upon-Avon welcomed over 60 police officers from regional and specialist police forces.
The officers attended a full day’s training, which was opened by CITS chairman Ian Elliott, the Group Head of Security for the utility company The Clancy Group.
Since 2022, police-only CITS training events have been rolled out to highlight the current threats and the importance of working in partnerships to tackle crime.
The latest figures published by NFU Mutual reveal that the estimated cost of rural crime in the Midlands shot up 30.1% to £11m in 2022.
The training was delivered by both specialist police training officers and industry experts, including DC Chris Piggott of NCATT, NFU Mutual’s Vehicle Crime Specialist, Kirsty Hyslop, and Police Liaison officers on behalf of the official Construction Equipment Association’s) (CEA’s) CESAR Scheme taught officers about current threats around Construction and Agricultural machinery theft and highlighted techniques to identify stolen machinery, rogue equipment movements, and common tricks used by criminal gangs to target industry.
Kirsty Hyslop, Vehicle Crime Specialist at NFU Mutual, said: “Rural crime is not only costly but highly disruptive and distressing for farmers and their families, so we’re delighted to support this police training event.
“Our latest figures reveal the estimated cost of rural crime in the Midlands alarmingly shot up 30.1% to £11m in 2022.
“The cost of farm theft also increased in the rest of the UK, so we need to keep up-to-date on the latest trends and security systems to keep these determined criminals at bay.”
Ian Elliott, Chairman of CITS, said: “It is really important to create partnerships and to help all police forces tackle the organised criminal gangs that are making theft a huge problem for farmers and industry. CITS in partnership with police, crime-fighting organisations and machinery manufacturers including Clancy’s, Hitachi and Leica, provide officers with the knowledge and detection techniques to combat equipment theft.”
The event was also supported by the Home Office industry schemes CESAR and MicroCESAR, both identification marking systems used by Police to easily identify ownership of plant and machinery used on farms and construction sites.
Scottish plant hirer GAP Group also supported the event, supplying machinery to aid the specialist police training officers in demonstrating the practical element of the training.
CITS, an industry forum comprising representatives from the Home Office, Police, Insurers, and Industry, will continue to host a series of further, free-to-attend, police-only training events in 2024. Officers should register their interest in future events, with faye@cits.uk.com
Further details can be found on the CITS website www.cits.uk.com
