Plant theft: the police report

While the £1m of recoveries made by the Met’s specialty plant unit since October sounds impressive, it’s only a fraction of an estimated £18m worth of equipment stolen in the past six months.

The stolen plant and agricultural equipment national intelligence unit began operations in October. Its quarterly report for October through December reveals that 926 pieces of plant equipment were stolen from construction sites and elsewhere during that time. It gives an average value of £10,000 for each piece of equipment, which means £9.26m worth of equipment has gone missing.

The next quarterly report is due out in early April and if the same trend continues, more than £18m will have been stolen in the past six months. Therefore, £1m in recoveries would only be equal to 5.5% - which is pretty much on par with the 5% recovery rate achieved by police before the unit was created.

Allianz, Norwich Union, Zurich, RSA and HSB Haughton have committed a total of £250,000 over two years to fund the plant unit. But should they continue to fund the unit into the future?

Put into context, the answer would unequivocally be yes. With a £1m return so far, that already more than pays for the £250,000 in funding. And like any new programme, it will take time for the plant unit to reach its full potential.

So far the unit has focused on establishing itself. Its first task was to create a database of stolen plant and agricultural equipment. The database is fed daily by information from the police national computer, as well as data from insurers.

The unit also relies on data from Construction Equipment Security and Registration (Cesar). Cesar was launched by the Met in April 2007 to tag and register plant equipment. So far, 20,564 of the approximately 79,000 plant machines have been ‘Cesared’.

Ian Elliott, a crime reduction officer who spearheaded the plant unit’s creation, said he’s not “overly happy” with 26% registration. But he added the percentage was pretty good considering Cesar is a relatively new initiative.

If a vehicle is registered with Cesar, it becomes virtually impossible for thieves to alter the vehicle’s true identity. And a 26% recovery would be a major victory versus 5%. Cesar registration is expected to skyrocket as it becomes regular practice for manufacturers to install Cesar tags on new machines.

The plant unit would also get a boost if its tiny three-man squad was eventually expanded. But again, it comes down to who’d be willing to pay for it.

See story: Security rating nudges insurers to reduce plant premiums