HOW IS PLANT & EQUIPMENT STOLEN AND DISPOSED OF?
EQUIPMENT SECURITY
The low level of both integral security on plant and equipment, and of crime reduction awareness amongst its owners, are two of the main reasons why equipment is vulnerable to theft and why it is easy to steal. A key flaw in the equipment’s integral security is the widespread use of the universal key. A criminal with a bunch of universal keys, such as is held by most plant fitters, will be able to start up and remove any unprotected equipment from an unprotected site.
PLANT IS USED TO ASSIST IN THEFT OF OTHER PLANT
Plant items are often used to assist in the theft of other plant items. For example, lorry mounted cranes can be used to reach over security fences and lift excavators out of a site onto the criminal’s vehicle; metal cutting saws can be used to cut fences or remove gates to access plant on sites; and, larger plant vehicles may be used to force entry into sites or yards.
COLLUSION AND CORRUPTION
In a proportion of cases criminals will pay for information relating to the location of vulnerable plant and equipment, or pay for the provision of access onto sites or locations.
TECHNICAL CAPABILITY
Once the plant has been accessed criminals may utilise scanners, jammers and battery discharge meters in order to identify, and/or neutralise, the presence of a tracking device on the target item. If such a device is located it may be neutralised through use of a jammer, destroyed in situ, or removed – in one instance a tracking device which had been removed from an item of plant was recovered by the police from a National Express coach on the M25!
TRANSPORTATION
Criminals may drive the plant off site and along the highway or load it directly onto a suitable road going transporter or trailer to remove it to another location. During this process, criminals may abandon the equipment for 24/48 hours in case the target item was fitted with a tracking device which they were unable to detect. These ‘airlock’ areas may be close to mobile phone masts and in the open air, to allow free access to phone and satellite signals, but which may also be unusual areas in which to see plant and equipment.
For example, a telescopic handler stolen in southern England in 2005 was placed by the criminal in a wood on the side of a hill, just below the mobile phone mast. Local residents reported the presence of the machine to the police, who inspected it and contacted TER’s out of hours police contact line. TER advised that the machine was highly likely to have been stolen and that it should be recovered to secure storage pending confirmation of theft. The police officer was not authorised by his chain of command to recover it, as it had not yet been reported as stolen. The following morning TER confirmed that the machine was stolen and informed the police officer. When they returned to the site the machine had gone.
Serious and organised criminals may also use hauliers to steal the plant for them. The haulier may be contacted at short notice by a client who he has never dealt with before, and for whom he has only a mobile phone number for contact details. The haulier will be asked to move an item from Site A – where there will be no-one to hand over the equipment and where the keys, if required (many plant hauliers have universal key sets) will be left under the seat - to Site B – which may be a service station, motorway intersection, industrial site or port where he will hand over the machine to the criminals. The haulier will be told that he will be paid cash on delivery.
RE-IDENTIFICATION
Once in his possession, and secure in his holding area, the serious and organised criminal will already know what re-identification techniques, if any, he will apply to the stolen plant prior to its disposal. This may include any of the following:
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No alteration to the equipment’s identity data
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Alter or erase identity
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Replace the identity - cloning
While opportunist criminals will tend to sell on stolen equipment without altering its identity and within a short period following its theft, often for considerably less than the market value, many other criminals attempt to secure higher value out of the stolen equipment by altering, erasing or completely changing the identity of the stolen equipment. By disguising the original identity in this way criminals can often sell on the equipment for its market value.
At its simplest, criminals will remove index/registration plates from the equipment, and deface or remove the serial number plate and the stamped-in chassis number. As there is virtually no culture of due diligence in the used equipment market - where potential purchasers, auctions and dealers check that the equipment is not registered as stolen - criminals can be fairly sure that potential purchasers will not concern themselves with the identity of the machine, but only with its condition and age.
Any owner decals or contact details painted on the machine are likely to be removed and some machines may receive a respray, which may itself be an amateur or professional job. TER recovered one stolen machine which had been hand painted!
A very high degree of technical re-identification, cloning, has now become a widespread criminal capability in the UK. This is where criminals remove the whole identity of the stolen machine and replace it with the whole identity of another machine. The ‘other’ machine may be in the UK market or may be overseas. But the criminals will have at their disposal the serial/chassis number, engine and axle numbers of the ‘other’ machine, possibly prior to the theft. In some instances, especially in the tractor market, the criminals will also steal the engine management system from the ‘other’ machine as this black box has the equipment’s serial/chassis number embedded within it.
If the criminals do not steal the serial number plate off the ‘other’ machine, they have the capability to make up excellent copies of the original manufacturer’s serial number plate on which they enter the ‘other’ machine details before fixing it to the chassis of the stolen machine in such a way that it is similar or identical to the appearance of a plate on an original machine. They do the same with engine and axle plates. Stamped-in chassis numbers are ground out, filled with weld, and re-stamped with the ‘other’ machine’s chassis number using a set of stamps which are either identical or very similar to the font used by the original manufacturer. The area of the stamped-in chassis number is then repainted to match the paint colour of the rest of the machine prior to its disposal.
In one case, during which TER provided intelligence to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and then operated with the Essex Police Organised Crime Task Force, a number of telescopic handlers which had been stolen in the UK were recovered in the UK with the exact identities of telescopic handlers sold by the manufacturer in New Zealand, the US, the United Arab Emirates, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy – the genuine machines were still in those countries. The telescopic handlers involved in this case were made by three different manufacturers. It is assessed that the criminals accessed the manufacturer data on the overseas machines in the UK, and then used this data to re-identify the machines.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL’S STOLEN EQUIPMENT HOLDING AREA
This re-identification process can take place here in the UK and Northern Ireland, or in the Republic of Ireland. The general characteristics of a criminal’s yard may include any or all of the following:
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Proximity to the national roads network
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Seclusion
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No through road
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Counter-surveillance opportunities
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One route for vehicular access
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Multi-route emergency dispersal for personnel only
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Approaches covered by monitored CCTV
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Approaches alarmed at some distance from the access point
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Heavily gated, usually locked
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Hangars and barns with open yard area
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Well secured perimeters which prevent visibility into the site
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Co-located with other criminals, or with sympathetic or intimidated parties
EXPORT
A proportion of equipment stolen in the UK may be exported immediately or within a period following its theft, with or without all or part of its original identity. Criminals may use their own haulage, particularly if the theft requires breaking and entry, and may then move direct to a port or to a temporary storage area. In those cases where the theft is to take place from a construction site, the criminal may distance himself from the theft act by sub-contracting the theft to an unwitting haulier to remove, move and deliver the equipment to a port or direct to an overseas location. When moving the stolen machines overseas, not including direct ferry sailings from the UK, criminals may also involve freight forwarders and shippers in facilitating the export.
For machines up to backhoe loader size, criminals may also use containerisation, hard or curtain sided articulated trailers, or lorries. Major UK container ports such as Felixstowe, Gravesend, Port of London, Tilbury, and Teesport are all possible exit routes. Any ro-ro ferry port, such as Swansea, Pembroke, Fishguard, Holyhead, Liverpool, Fleetwood, Heysham, Stranraer/Cairnryan, Rosyth, Hull, Immingham, Harwich, Dover, Folkestone, Newhaven, Southampton, Poole, Plymouth and Bristol may also be used. Higher levels of traffic density through the port assist the criminal by allowing his load to be lost amongst the other legitimate traffic. Dover Eastern Docks alone has 8,500 articulated trailer movements per day. Unmonitored or unpoliced ports are used, and criminals will be aware of police manning rotas when it comes to timing the sailing of stolen machines. In sum, the necessities of freedom of international movement by legitimate traffic, the weight of that international traffic, and the relevant knowledge held or accessed by criminals mean that the UK is a leaky sieve regarding the export of property stolen within the UK.
Known destination countries for equipment stolen in the UK, NI and Europe include:
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Republic of Ireland
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Western and Eastern Europe
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Middle East
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Africa
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Australia
BROKEN FOR PARTS
Machines may be broken for parts and sold in the UK or exported. This is usually dependant upon age, condition and demand. In a limited number of cases high quality machines may be broken down into its major parts, containerised, exported and reassembled overseas prior to sale.
STOLEN EQUIPMENT SALES
Once at their final overseas destination, the machines will be disposed of into the used equipment market in that country.
The channels used by criminals for the disposal of stolen equipment in the UK and overseas include:
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Direct sale to end-users
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Auctions
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Dealers
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Trade publications
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Internet sales
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Fenced into the legitimate used equipment market place via quasi-criminals
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Parts dealers
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