Farmers are being encouraged to mark and log all of their property in a bid to reduce farm thefts and aid gardaí in recovering stolen property.
Barry Carey, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) crime prevention executive and Sgt. Graham Kavanagh, crime prevention officer with An Garda Síochána, joined Agriland on the official livestream from the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co. Laois today (Thursday, September 22).
Carey said: “Thieves and criminals, when they take something they want to offload it as quickly as possible.
“Property marking does three things. It’s a deterrent to crime, the chances of getting the item returned to you is greater, and a greater chance of prosecution of those that are caught with it.”
The Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalouge, launched the Property Marking Scheme at the Ploughing yesterday (September 21).
Carey highlighted the wide range of items that are marked, from power tools to ride-on lawnmowers and even domestic items such as jewellery.
Avoiding thefts
Sgt. Graham Kavanagh spoke of the benefits of property marking in aiding gardaí to recover stolen goods.
“It’s a deterrent for them [thieves] to steal it and it’ll make the person who is buying it to think twice,” he explained.
“We still have situations of people leaving keys in cars and jeeps in yards and these vehicles are subsequently used to steal property from other locations.”
Sgt. Kavanagh stressed that simple habit changes are a big help in preventing thefts.
Carey also highlighted that farm thefts are a mix of planned thefts and opportunistic thefts and that events like the Ploughing could be a prime time for thieves to strike.
“We are trying to remind farmers who are very busy where security and crime prevention isn’t in the foreground.
“We want to keep crime prevention up there on the agenda as we move into the change of daylight hours in the coming months, where a lot of crime occurs in that particular time.”
Carey also discussed the impact of farm thefts on the farm itself and said that it is not only the business interruption, but also the cost of replacing the property and the implications for that farmer’s insurance policy.
Gardaí have also launched a Property App which allows people to record all of their property around the farm by taking pictures and uploading details of the property which is uploaded to the virtual cloud.
In the event of a theft, the person can access the file and hand it over to the gardaí, which can lead to quicker identification of property.