Rural Crime News

The owners of a Norfolk-based pumpkin patch have issued a plea to local residents following a theft of a tractor, 27 wheelbarrows and a mower. 

Officers from Cumbria’s dedicated rural crime team have recovered stolen property worth £820,000, cut quad bike thefts and made dozens of arrests in one year since the squad was launched.

Scottish Borders police are appealing for information after 70 hay bales were set alight at a farm in Berwickshire. 

An 85-year-old Welsh farmer has been handed a suspended sentence following charges relating to causing unnecessary suffering to sheep and cattle, with some “being eaten live by flies”. 

A Suffolk rare breeds farm has experienced an “absolute horror” after one of its sheep was shot. 

An eight-year-old boy died after he was shot in the head and face on a farm in Cumbria. 

A farmer from Northern Ireland was sentenced to 10 months in jail after causing unnecessary suffering to cows. 

200 litres of red diesel were stolen from a tractor in the Penrith area, Cumbria Police confirmed. 

A 26-year-old man from Totton has been charged after hitting a cow on a road in New Forest when drink driving.

High-value items, including quad bikes, trailers and power tools have recently been stolen from properties in Powys area in Wales, police confirmed. As a result, officers from the Dyfed Powys Police are advising the farming community to take some simple steps to reduce the risk of becoming victims of burglaries or thefts. 

Crimestoppers has partnered with Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham police forces to help tackle cross-border rural crime. 

Eight rare breed chickens have been stolen in what farm owners fear is a planned and targeted theft.