Agriculture and Plant

Working in partnership with industry to protect communities from harm caused by theft of farm and construction vehicles and machinery.

Agricultural and plant vehicles are particularly vulnerable to theft, with assets sometimes stolen to order and shipped out of the country for re-sale on lucrative markets.

Even a second-hand tractor can retail at tens of thousands of pounds.

Despite this, compared to the car industry, in-built security features in agricultural and plant vehicles have been slow to keep pace to the increasing threat from organised crime.

As a result, the financial and emotional impact to communities, particularly in farming and rural areas, can be severe.

Our aim

Supported by the National Farmers Union (NFU) Mutual, the aim of the NaVCIS Agriculture and Plant team is to:

• prevent crime
• pursue offenders
• protect communities
• help recover stolen assets

Our work

We gather information to assess the ever-changing national picture of machinery thefts from farms and communities.

We identify emerging trends, threats and risks to develop intelligence about organised crime groups.

We provide operational packages to police forces and law enforcement partners both in the UK and globally, that are used to support proactive operations, investigations and prosecutions.

We support local police and have a fleet of bait vehicles with tracking capabilities that are available to forces to target offenders. These are successfully deployed on a regular basis.

We work directly with NaVCIS ports officers to identify the illegal export of plant and farming machinery, and recover stolen assets.

Together with NFU Mutual we attend auction sites to examine vehicles, tractors and trailers to prevent innocent members of the public from purchasing stolen goods. This partnership working disrupts criminals’ attempts to profit from their criminal activity.

Dedicated resources

We have an expert vehicle examiner who specialises in plant and agricultural machinery, available upon request for police pre-planner operations and warrants. Our examiner is also able to assist forces with live enquiries on such equipment during office hours.

Get in touch

To speak with a member of our Agriculture and Plant team, please contact us.