Successful Plant Theft Recoveries Over Bank Holiday Weekend

Plant theft remains a huge concern in our industry and the CPA is taking an active role in the fight against criminal activity. Last year we made a three-year commitment to fund £90,000 to help fight plant equipment theft, which is costing our industry millions each year. 

With additional funding from several other organisations such as the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), CESAR donors and insurers, a total of £650,000 is being contributed collectively to help fund NCATT - a specialist team of police officers that cover the whole of the country to help tackle the theft of construction plant and equipment by organised criminal groups.

Over the August Bank Holiday Weekend, the NCATT team had a great recovery in Manchester, whereby a stolen JCB telehandler was successfully recovered. Through NCATT’s investigation work, a high lift dumper was also recovered. When a member of the NCATT team turned up at one of the hire company drop off points, unbeknown to them, another large generator had just been delivered. At the premises there was an individual painting out all the signage on the machine; he duly ran off but was caught and arrested. The fact that he was covered in paint was rather damning.

The advice from NCATT is to always remain vigilant of any drop off points that appear to be dubious, and refrain from leaving keys in machines when no one is present.

In this instance, the delivery driver who dropped the equipment off could identify that it was suspect. This is just one example where funds from the CPA and other organisations are helping to fight equipment theft.