Police are being urged to respond to the growing number of thieves using GPS jammers to target construction, plant and agricultural businesses to the value of £1.5million a week.

Supporting the Lancashire Constabulary Agricultural Crime Conference, Stolen vehicle recovery experts TRACKER have highlighted how organised criminal groups are employing new tactics to outwit police as they steal equipment and vehicles to order.

Historically the perpetrators have been importing cheap GPS jammers from overseas, and using them to steal cars and 4x4s, but are now branching out to take advantage of the growing demand for plant. Alarming new figures from NFU Mutual estimate that approximately £1.5million of construction and agricultural machinery is stolen every week in the UK. TRACKER believes that GPS jamming is playing a significant role in supporting this unlawful activity.

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Talking at the Agricultural Crime Conference, Stuart Chapman, head of TRACKER's Police Relationship Team explained: "Systems that rely on GPS alone are susceptible to jamming, confirming the potential weakness of most tracking devices available today. By combining 3 different means of location, including unique VHF technology, TRACKER offers owners and hirers of plant machinery the most effective safeguard against theft, even if the GPS does fail."

Mr Chapman concluded: "Figures show that a staggering 68 percent of all plant and agricultural equipment we recover is done so within 24 hours of the TRACKER device being activated and 10 percent of those are recovered within just one hour. With agricultural crime estimated to cost the British countryside more than £50 million a year, our jamming resilient tracking devices can only serve to bring peace of mind to those agricultural vehicle and equipment owners who invest in a TRACKER unit."

(HMc)