Cubtech: Meet the Yorkshire agricultural security specialist protecting farmers from GPS thieves

“GPS theft has been happening for years but started becoming more popular during 2019-2020. It then dropped a little bit in 2021 when John Deere released a new pin code, but the perpetrators soon found a way around it.

“Most of what is stolen in the UK, from what we are told, goes to Eastern Europe. Some farmers have later found theirs for sale on eBay in foreign countries, but once it leaves the UK there really is not much the police can do about it.

“The latest figures from North Yorkshire Police show that GPS theft in North Yorkshire in the last 12 months amounted to a value of £240,000-£250,000 worth of kit and in the Humberside area another £150,000. The NFU reports that theft in England & Wales was equipment to the value of £1.5m in 2021.

Lee said that farms targeted were right across the board but that larger farms with a greater fleet of tractors were prime victims.

“When it happens, these people don’t just remove one on a farm, they remove them all, so if you have a fleet of say eight to ten tractors that’s eight to ten GPS systems. That’s the unit that sits on the front of the tractor on the cab windscreen receiving the information and the touchscreen inside the tractor.

“Targeting a farming company with a number of GPS units and knowing they (the thieves) will be able to get rid of them quickly, on a container down at Hull Docks for instance and on a boat within 24 hours, is what they aim to do. All they do is wrap the GPS in tinfoil or anything else they can to distort the signal, so there is virtually no chance of locating it.

Lee sees how this affects each farm in their inability to undertake their normal jobs.

“Ninety per cent of today’s new tractors now rely on GPS for some form of their day-to-day use, and especially at harvest and cultivation time, and are rendered unable to do their jobs the way in which was intended without these screens. There is one brand of tractor that just cannot operate without. This can obviously seriously impact on the farm’s productivity in time and money and cause the farmer much distress.

Lee understands the farmers’ dilemma. He works with them every day and appreciates the hours worked and that taking systems on and off tractors and locking them away, whilst being an obvious deterrent, isn’t always going to happen.

“A lot of what we do is about prevention through CCTV and notifying people that someone is on their farm. That’s one way of helping, although we would always advise that valuable items should be well locked and/or well hidden.

“That would be the biggest thing from our point of view. The best advice for farmers is quite simply to take off the GPS systems from their tractors and lock them away. It’s not rocket science. The regular, standard receivers placed on the tractor cab start at about £3,000 while the even more accurate ones start at about £5,500. That’s just the receiver that sits on the top. The screens start at around £8,500.

Lee said GPS theft, for all of the inconvenience it can bring and although rising all the time, is still not regarded in the same way among farmers as losing their tractors, quad bikes and Land Rovers, or more lately losing fuel.

“The NFU reported that agricultural vehicle theft in 2021 was £9.1m. Fuel theft is mega too. A lot of my new clients are those who have had fuel stolen, didn’t do anything about it and then the thieves came back and did it again. Farmers need to lock up their fuel tanks. Some big farms will have £30,000 worth of fuel on the farm. I have had more farmers tell me about fuel theft since the price rise.

Where Lee’s professional security systems come in are the use of CCTV, automatic gates and trackers.

“CCTV is a great deterrent. The NFU and the Police always advise CCTV and the cameras we use are smart. They have built-in brains. They analyse footage and know the difference between a person, vehicle or an animal. If they pick up an animal walking through a yard they ignore it. If they spot a person they can notify the client and also activate flashing lights and sirens.

“Police have what they call the Golden Hour after an incident has occurred. If they are immediately aware of a robbery in progress they usually have a far better chance of catching the perpetrators.

“We also have some clever bits of GPS kit we install on vehicles. Trackers with back up batteries that will last long after the vehicle’s power has been turned off.

“Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are another part of the armoury. We’ve seen a big increase in people requesting those.

Lee has worked with hundreds of farms in Yorkshire where CCTV is used in a much happier way than as a deterrent to theft.

“We have changed livestock farmers’ lives through installing CCTV in their calving and lambing sheds. These really help with personal health as it means farmers don’t have to be up and down all night.

“Much of what we do is about theft prevention, but it is great to know we help in this way too.