Essex countryside news

Essex is 72% rural and our Rural Engagement Team focuses on supporting our rural communities because we understand issues faced by people who live and work in these rural areas are often unique.

Rural crime and anti-social behaviour can impact insurance premiums and food prices and damage local communities, affecting livelihoods.

Our rural engagement officers have an in-depth knowledge of what matters to our countryside communities and they work to prevent, detect and deter crime in those communities, as well as catching people intent on causing harm.

Supporting our rural communities and businesses is at the heart of their role. 

Inspector Terry Jacobs heads up our Rural Engagement Team. Here, he discusses the work of his officers in combating the theft of agricultural and construction equipment and how marking your property can help. 

Here in Essex, we understand that the theft of machinery has a huge impact on rural businesses and farms.

It can be expensive and challenging to replace and disrupts the whole business when it’s stolen because of the additional costs and time out of operation to repair damage caused by thieves.

The Rural Engagement Team (RET) run a range of targeted operations to tackle theft of agricultural and construction equipment. We also undertake pro-active checks on machinery to ensure that it is in the right hands.

To combat this type of criminal activity, the team also frequently attend Essex ports and conduct checks on freight destined for the continent and further afield.

We work closely with the ports themselves, the Port of Tilbury Police, neighbouring police forces, the National Construction and Agriculture Theft Team (NCATT), the Central Registration & Identification Scheme and DataTag, a business which provides forensic marking security systems.

Some of these partners have shared their expert knowledge by providing bespoke training to our rural engagement officers who understand how to examine a range of plant and machinery to establish its legitimacy.

This has led us to recover tractors, diggers and other machinery valued at several million pounds since the team was formed in 2017.

One such operation at Harwich International Port last year resulted in a driver being jailed after being found trying to leave the country with £70,000 cash. The cash was wrapped in foil bundles and stored in the cab fridge.  On arrest, the driver suggested that the bundles were sandwiches! 

We seized the cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA). When the police seize money or assets proved to have been obtained through criminal activity, police are then able to apply for a share of the cash generated to fund crime prevention initiatives.

We have also formed strong local partnerships, with farmers, landowners and local authorities, and we all work together to make our county truly hostile for those involved in this criminality.

The theft of plant and machinery is often conducted by organised criminals. To help to protect it, we work with owners to deter would-be thieves and prevent it from being stolen in the first place.

We have often recovered items we believe to be stolen but have not been able to establish this, which means we can’t prove anyone linked to them has been involved in criminal activity.

Forensic property marking is one such solution and, this year, we successfully applied to the force’s Proceeds of Crime Fund to purchase kits. These enable items to be marked with a substance that contains its own unique DNA and ‘microdots’ that can be read with a special scope to allow conclusive identification.

The team are now engaging with farmers and other owners of agricultural plant, marking it and recording the owners’ details on an online database. When officers come across machinery during their patrols, if it is marked, they can quickly identify the owner. If it is in the wrong hands, we can easily arrange its return.

There’s no subscription and the POCA funding has allowed us to provide this service to our rural communities at no cost to the public.

In Essex, we take the theft of plant very seriously and relentlessly pursue the criminals responsible. We also provide bespoke crime prevention advice to help prevent machinery and equipment from being stolen in the first place.

• Visit our rural crime webpages for specific crime prevention advice
• Find out more about our farm and rural watch scheme

You can read Terry’s column every other month in NFU Countryside magazine. The above column is published in the February 2025 issue.

Report information to us

Anyone who experiences or who has information about crime or anti-social behaviour, should ring 999 if it’s an emergency or a crime in progress.

Otherwise, you can report it online where you can also provide information directly to an online Live Chat operator at any time. Alternatively, you can ring 101.

You can also contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, online or by calling 0800 555 111.