Plant police nab thieves

Good news for insurers this week, with the report that over £60,000 worth of stolen plant has been recovered during a two-week police crackdown.

Plant theft, as readers will no doubt know, is big business for criminals, with gangs making hundreds of thousands of pounds from stealing top end tractors, excavators and other big bits of kit and shipping them abroad. It costs insurers over £400m a year.

Interestingly, the police operation was called Operation Crassus. Classical scholars will recall that Roman general Crassus, one of the richest men ever, was the political and financial support behind Julius Caesar. History does not reveal Crassus’ stance on tractor theft.