Maidstone Among Areas Targeted as Kent Police Seize £120,000 in Rural Crime Crackdown

Rural parts of Maidstone were among those patrolled by Kent Police's Rural Task Force in a late-September operation that recovered £120,000 worth of stolen vehicles, machinery and equipment across the county.

On 29 September, officers patrolled rural areas of Ashford, Canterbury and Maidstone, where they located and seized a £15,000 Mercedes car and a £16,000 horsebox. The truck that had been towing the horsebox was also seized, as it had not been taxed. Kent Police has not specified which of the three areas each item was recovered in. No arrests were made, but the details of all drivers were taken and will form part of ongoing criminal investigations.

The bulk of the £120,000 total was recovered in an earlier phase of the operation at the Port of Dover on 23 and 24 September, run with support from the National Construction and Agriculture Theft Team (NCATT). Officers there stopped a Mercedes Sprinter van found to be carrying a stripped £40,000 Lexus and a stripped £10,000 Hyundai Ioniq, and separately seized a £20,000 Nissan Navara, a £20,000 van and two caravans worth £10,000 in total. Across the whole operation, officers seized two cars, two vans, two caravans and a horsebox believed to be stolen, plus two further cars that had been completely stripped for parts.

Sergeant Ross Haybourne said rural crime typically increases during autumn and winter as criminals take advantage of darker evenings to access farmland undetected. "When criminals steal vehicles and agricultural machinery, they do not often drive them around in plain sight," he said. "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."

Source: Kent Police