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Hunt continues for Stolen Plant
As the hunt continues for an Hitachi ZX200 excavator, complete with rock hammer and valued at £45,000, and stolen from a construction site in Lurgan, Plant & Civil Engineer’s David Stokes has been finding out what can be done to beat the thieves at their own game.
There is no doubt that the theft of plant and site equipment in both the north and south of Ireland is on the increase, and even more so in the current economic climate. It’s a major problem for everyone involved in the industry - from major civil engineering companies through to family-run building firms.
We are told that once your item of plant has been nicked you only have a 5% chance of seeing it again.
Construction sites, some of them presently lying idle, are proving a magnet for criminals who know that thousands of pounds worth of machinery, tools and equipment are sitting around in a relatively small area and, in their eyes, this property is just waiting to be stolen.
There’s a huge demand for used plant and equipment in the UK, Ireland, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The National Plant and Equipment Register (TER) says equipment theft is growing. Indeed, the theft of construction equipment has been estimated to cost Ireland and the UK between £600 million and £1 billion per year.
Reward
Fermanagh-based Conwell Contracts know all about it. They’ve put up a £1,500 reward for information leading to the recovery of the Hitachi ZX200, stolen from a site at Kiln Road in Lurgan several months ago.
“The thieves were very professional. They had a Scania truck and a low loader to pic up the excavator and drive off; anyone spotting its removal wouldn’t have known it was actually being stolen,” Conwell Contracts Liam Breen told us.
“We were able to a CCTV recording showing the gang stealing the machine, so we have a good description of the Scania and low loader that was used, and police across the country have been alerted. If anyone sees them or the Hitachi, we would like to hear from them.”
Alas, the excavator wasn’t fitted with an anti-theft tracking system. “It’s such a large machine and it wouldn’t have been easily stolen. That said, all of our other plant have trackers on them, and because of that we’ve been able to recover diggers and vans previously stolen off site, so tracking devices are to be recommended.”
Plant Hired
Conwell Contracts, of course, are not the only ones suffering at the hands of thieves. Just recently, an Ifor Williams flatbed trailer was stolen from Cloyfin Road in Coleraine, and police in Belfast are currently trying to track down plant machinery valued at £30,000, taken in separate incidents in the city.
We are told a hire company who owned the plant hired out the equipment in good faith but subsequent enquiries by police revealed that a false order number had been given, and the incident is now being treated as theft.
Plant security
There are many steps that can be taken to secure plant on or off site. Simple measures include recording the serial numbers on equipment, which means if it is stolen, identifying it won’t be a problem. Alarms, immobilisers, padlocks and chains can also be used..
If the equipment is stored in a yard, it makes sense to have lockable gates, CCTV, security lighting and even security guards.
But hey, that’s all very elementary. Thieves have become so sophisticated these days, that all of those measures are easily overcome. So what can you do?
Wireless Tracking
Belfast-based Kwiklift Equipment is one of the local companies at the forefront in plant security, offering a wide range of devices and systems to protect plant and equipment.
Says the company’s Mark Towse: “You wouldn’t leave a £30,000 car unlocked by the roadside, so why would you leave expensive plant unprotected. We have some 4,000 different kits available - for mini diggers, cranes, rollers and dozers. We also have available track locks, ram locks and hitch locks for all types of plant and trailers, such as diggers, telehandlers, dump truck and excavators.”
But it is wireless tracking that is the most popular with plant operators. Kwiklift offers a unit that is very small, and has its own power supply, which will last up to 4 years.
“Our product is the best there is in the world, better than any GPS based or hard wired system as they can be easily located and rendered useless by thieves,” Mark reckons. “Our wireless device has enjoyed big success in plant recovery north and south of the border. In recent weeks, for example, it has helped us recover six machines for a plant hire company. In fact, every stolen machine that has ever been fitted with the device has been recovered.”
The wireless device can be fitted in next to no time, and because it is so small in size it can be cleverly concealed on the plant or piece of equipment, making it virtually impossible for a potential thief to spot it.
“Even if they have a tracking locator device, our wireless system will not be detected as it goes into ‘sleep’ mode and does not emit a signal. It will only do that when I send it a signal to reactivate it – and that only happens when the plant owner reports the machinery stolen. Then, it is only a matter of time before we can track down the stolen property.”
Plant & Equipment Register
We are not aware of any all Ireland based ‘stolen equipment register,’ perhaps it’s time to set up one similar to that in the UK. It’s called, not surprisingly, The National Plant & Equipment Register (TER) – it also operates across Europe - and its mission is ‘to reduce plant and equipment theft and to improve stolen equipment recovery rates through the provision of a range of services to the police and law enforcement agencies, and to the industries which manufacture, finance, insure, own, use, trade, and auction plant and equipment.’
TER boasts a comprehensive database of stolen plant and equipment. More than £200m of stolen equipment has been registered with TER by the police, owners, users, insurers and banks.
All you need to do is tell TER the identification details of any stolen plant and equipment valued at more than £1,500, along with the owner and, if relevant, hirer details, with the police crime details, and which insurance company is on cover and their claims reference number. The data can be registered using a paper Theft Registration Form which can be faxed or posted to TER, or via the TER website.
TER will log the theft on the TER database. If the theft is a higher value on (excess of £15-20,000) and it has been reported to TER within 24 hrs of theft, TER will circulate its details to all police forces and ports. |
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