Rural officers seize £120,000 worth of property in anti-theft operation

An operation targeting the thefts of agricultural plant and machinery resulted in Kent Police officers seizing £120,000 worth of stolen property.

Rural crime typically increases during autumn and winter as criminals take advantage of the darker evenings to sneak onto farmland and take valuable equipment that does not belong to them.

Across three separate days in late September 2026, officers from the Rural Task Force seized two cars, two vans, two caravans and a horse box that were all believed to have been stolen. They also located two further cars that had been completely stripped for parts including a £40,000 Lexus.

Spot checks

Sergeant Ross Haybourne said:

‘When criminals steal vehicles and agricultural machinery, they do not often drive them around in plain sight. Instead they load them onto the backs of HGVs and other tall sided vehicles in order to transport them across or outside of the UK undetected. ‘As part of our most recent operation we carried out spot checks on hundreds of vehicles to see if there were any stolen goods on board. Whilst the vast majority were carrying legitimate products, we were pleased to locate a number of stolen vehicles that were seized and will now be returned to their rightful owners whilst criminal investigations into the circumstances continue.’

The first part of the operation was held at the Port of Dover on 23 and 24 September with support also provided by the National Construction and Agriculture Theft Team (NCATT).

Among the vehicles stopped was a Mercedes Sprinter van that was found to contain the stripped Lexus as well as a stripped Hyundai Ioniq worth around £10,000. The van and the parts were all seized in addition to a Nissan Navara valued at £20,000 and two caravans worth a total of £10,000.

The second part of the operation saw officers patrol rural areas of Ashford, Canterbury and Maidstone on 29 September, where they located and seized a £15,000 Mercedes car and a £16,000 horsebox. The truck that had been transporting the horsebox was also seized as it had not been taxed.

No arrests were made but the details of all drivers were taken and will form part of ongoing criminal investigations.

Proactive approach

Sergeant Haybourne said:

‘Offenders who steal vehicles and machinery from farms or any other location should not feel like they have got away with it if they are not immediately detected, because their crimes will catch up with them in the end. ‘Operations like this demonstrate the proactive approach we take to identifying stolen property and preventing it from being exported outside of the UK. It also sends a message to criminals who plan to transport stolen goods throughout Kent and beyond that we look forward to seeing them in the future.’

Sergeant Mark Yarrow from the Port of Dover Police said:

‘Working together with partner agencies such as Kent Police and NCATT is vital in tackling rural crime, particularly cross-border offences involving high-value vehicles and agricultural machinery. ‘By sharing intelligence, expertise and resources, we can strengthen our response, better protect rural communities in the county and make the Port of Dover unattractive to criminal networks.’