Crime wave of electric scooters spread to farms, gangs aim at GPS kits

An insurance company claims that organized gangs are using “silent” electric scooters to carry out moonlight attacks on rural farms in order to obtain expensive equipment.

The thieves are using a farmland GPS system worth thousands of pounds and using electric scooters to “escape quickly”.

National Farmers Union Mutual has underwritten more than £1.5 billion in annual premiums for rural communities. The company said the blockade has reduced the number of claims in the UK by 20% to approximately £43.3 million. However, the cost of claims related to the theft of GPS systems and agricultural vehicles (such as quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles) is still more than 9 million pounds, only 2% lower than in 2019.

Compared with 2019, the GPS system claims almost doubled to 2.9 million pounds.

DC Chris Piggott from the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Agency said: “Rural thieves are becoming more sophisticated and can bypass the high security level of modern agricultural machinery.

“More and more we see the gang patiently observe the farm from a distance and discover where the expensive GPS kits for tractors are stored.

“They usually come back to steal things at night, and now they use silent electric scooters to enter the farmhouse and escape at high speed without being detected.

“The thieves have also become more cunning, stealing quad bikes-watching for hours rushing into the farm yard, stealing them when they are left unattended for a few minutes.”

Rebecca Davidson, a rural affairs expert at NFU Mutual, said: “Last year, coronavirus restrictions, enhanced farm safety, and more effective police rural crime teams led to a welcome decline in rural thefts.

“Although the blockade may have locked some criminals out of the countryside, rural crime has not disappeared.

“The thieves are now back with new tactics and targets. Organized criminal groups continue to target farmyards, buying high-value GPS systems, quad bikes and tractors. The cost of theft from farm vehicles is still more than £9 million. ——Compared with 2019, the cost has dropped by only 2%.”