I am PC Mike Dawber from the Knutsford Neighbourhood Policing Team.
I currently police the Mere beat area which 
takes in the parishes of Mere, Tabley, Rostherne, Millington and Little Bollington and Ashley
The main issues are obviously, plant and farm machinery are worth
a hell of a lot of money. The days when criminals were actively targeting vehicles
and stealing them by simply hot wiring them and driving them away, that's gone now.
So the market's moved and obviously some serious organised criminals
are starting to target farm machinery, and obviously plant equipment.
There are a number of measures that we're asking people,
the local farmers in particular to take notice of. The first one would be
obviously any out buildings where there's valuable equipment stored inside,
we're advising them to fit British Kite marked
alarm system
to the property to first of
 all alert the farmers
and also the police, should anyone does decide to break in.
The second one is, with plant equipment - tractors, combines - 
we are asking that they fit a simple 
satellite tracking system to that piece of equipment.
As I say some of that equipment is in the tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
To fit something as simple which costs a couple of hundred pounds must be a 
good investment. A couple of weeks ago, we had an excavator which was stolen
in Knutsford, and we recovered it less than 6 hours later. Simply because it
had a satellite device installed on it.
Two lads with the stolen equipment were subsequently arrested.
Well a simple deterrent which has been used on this farm
where we are now, is the occupant has installed two ton concrete slabs around
adjacent perimeter fences and gateways. Obviously he has to put those
into place at the end of his business every day. But obviously
it's a very good deterrent, in stopping people driving vehicles onto the farm
and then obviously targeting the expensive equipment
that's on the farm.
To prevent the livestock from being targeted, we would advise that all sheep
are tagged with the relevant tagging, it's usually in the ear or on the leg.
We're advising that that’s a good deterrent,
 then if any sheep are stolen, the farmers markets can find out if the sheep are stolen
and we can deal with it accordingly.
