A senior Nottinghamshire Police Officer says people stealing fuel from lorries on the A1 are then causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to land and intimidating farmers. It comes as land owners in areas of Nottinghamshire could soon be getting extra CCTV and lighting to help to tackle rural crime.
The force is in the process of hiring a Rural Crime Prevention Officer to work with the victims of offences including fly-tipping, the theft of farm machinery and plant vehicles and the theft of fuel from farms. But Chief Inspector Heather Maelor, Nottinghamshire Police's rural crime lead, said one of the biggest issues currently faced by farmers is a "secondary offence" perpetrated by fuel thieves.
Chief Inspector Maelor said: "We see the theft of fuel from HGVs on the A1 and the driver of the HGV is obviously the victim of the fuel theft, but then there is the secondary offence where the offenders will travel for miles on quadbikes and in 4x4 vehicles. As they do that, they just completely tear up all the crops and damage the farmland.
