The Hire Association Europe aims to help recover over £2.7 million in stolen equipment this year with the launching of its Theft & Fraud Reporting Portal.
The HAE - officially the Hire Association Europe & Event Hire Association – is based in Birmingham, UK. It is a trade association for the plant, tool, equipment and event hire sectors with membership representing businesses from new startups to some of Europe’s largest hire companies. The HAE says that it has over 700 member companies based mainly across Europe.
The portal will share incident information with the UK’s National Construction & Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT) and the Construction and Agricultural Equipment Security & Registration Scheme (CESAR).
The Association says that construction and agricultural machinery theft has increased by 200 per cent since February 2021, with global events, like the war in Ukraine, driving up demand for stolen goods of this type.
Thefts will often occur during a country’s national holidays when construction sites are closed down but leaving machinery in place. The hire industry is disproportionately impacted, the association notes.
At the same time, the equipment hire sector is experiencing a huge spike in fraudulent hires.
The collaborative initiative, which HAE is supporting with a significant investment over a three-year commitment, is made up of businesses, police and industry bodies, to tackle the growing crime rates against industry. A report, published by NCATT and CESAR, noted that the total value of tools and equipment recovered from the sector in just the first quarter of this year was almost £700k.
The southern English county of Essex, close to London, was a prime target area for the crimes. Police in the county was supported by CESAR and NCATT in 12 cases early this year. The report also noted that 32 arrests had been made and 127 items recovered, with some equipment found as far afield as Romania and Italy.
“Ensuring that we can gather as much information as possible about these crimes and work collaboratively across industry and the police is key to tackling this wave of organised crime against our hire sector,” said Mark Bradshaw, spokesperson for the HAE EHA. “That’s why we are creating the Theft & Fraud Reporting Portal for our members to ensure that they have a way of getting this information directly to the policing teams that can help, as well as sharing their experience with other members, something which could help someone else to reduce their risk and keep their team and business safe.
“If incidents do occur, please do report them, both to the police and to us, the information will go directly into supporting the activity of the CESAR and NCATT teams,” he said.
“The Hire Association Europe’s three-year funding commitment to help fight plant equipment theft and fraud is absolutely crucial to us continuing this work and targeting construction machinery thieves,” said Andy Huddleston, head of the NCATT and head of the National Rural Crime Unit. “Having this specialist team of police officers that cover the whole of the country not only identifying stolen equipment but also coordinating forces and pushing legislative changes is making a difference in tackling organised criminal groups that target HAE members.”
