Starting off the day, Superintendent Steve Kerridge and Sergeant Tom Nuttal from the rural crime team ran through what to look out for when policing key incidents such as hare coursing, lamping, poaching and fox hunting, outlining with images and videos the impacts these crimes have on farmers and their businesses.
Intelligence was shared that, from seized phones, they had found bets of significant value placed on dogs, with the best dogs then being sold for large sums of money, highlighting the serious nature of the crime and the money involved.
Rural crime impact
“We hope the wider Cambridgeshire police teams and representatives across the force left with a better understanding of the devastating impact rural crime has.”
NFU East Regional Policy Manager Charles Hesketh
This session was followed up with a presentation by NFU East Regional Policy Manager Charles Hesketh, Cambridgeshire County Adviser Rory Kerr and NFU member Matthew Latta, the latter of whose farm was one of the worst impacted by hare coursing during January.
Charles talked through the current challenges facing farmers such as proposed changes to IHT (inheritance tax), access to water, concerns over compulsory purchase as well as a harvest update giving the wider force a greater understanding of the pressures farmers are under. This was followed by an update on policy work and successful amendments to Bills and guidance. Rory was able to talk through the impacts fly-tipping, machinery thefts, arson and cyber crime have on horticulture businesses as well as local action the NFU has been involved in.
Matthew gave a personal account of how hare coursing has impacted his family, his business and issues around police response times during the January incident.
Current trends
Craig Fellowes from the NWCU (National Wildlife Crime Unit) talked through training available for police to better deal with wildlife crime and some of the tactics criminals are using. This was followed by an update by DS Chris Piggott from the NRCU (National Rural Crime Unit), who ran through current trends and the impact that 'days of action' and projects such as Operation Galileo have had in helping to bring crime rates down. A practical demonstration was given on how best to identify agricultural and construction property and the methods offenders are using to evade the police.
In the most recent NFU Mutual figures, the cost of rural crime in Cambridgeshire was shown to be down 8% on the previous year to £1.92m, although DS Piggott did believe this figure is likely to increase based on the trend of the current year.
Our advice to members continues to be to report, report, report, as having the data set is vital for our lobbying work to ensure there is adequate resource to support rural policing.
NFU East Regional Policy Manager Charles said “It was great to be invited to speak at this training day and our thanks goes to the Cambridgeshire Rural Crime Action Team team in pulling this vital meeting together.
“We hope the wider Cambridgeshire police teams and representatives across the force left with a better understanding of the devastating impact rural crime has on not only the farm business but the mental health of those impacted. We look forward to using this blueprint across the region to further raise police forces' skillsets and knowledge.”
