The South East is the Most Heavily Targeted Region for Construction Plant Theft

The latest plant theft figures reveal that the South East is the most heavily targeted region for the theft of construction plant machinery in the UK.

Despite a reduction from 179 to 138 stolen machines in the South East in the last quarter (PANIU Report, Jan-March 2017), it still remains by far the most targeted area, with over 26% of UK plant machinery thefts occurring in the South East. Plant machinery theft has also increased in the South West by 27% in the last quarter from 48 to 61 machines, meaning that Southern England has a total of 39% machinery theft in the UK this quarter.

Yorkshire and the North East is the second most heavily targeted region for construction plant theft with 86 stolen machines reported to PANIU in the quarter. However, plant theft has significantly reduced in the Midlands with a 35% decrease from 92 to 59 stolen machines. In October-December 2016, the Midlands was the second most targeted region for plant theft but it has dropped to position 5 out of 10 in the latest figures, reflecting a changing geographical picture of theft.

At AMI Group, we offer a range of cost-effective plant tracking devices which can assist the safe return of plant machinery in the unfortunate event of it being stolen. This small investment can pay dividends, as the money spent on increasing security measures can be quickly recovered through insurance discounts, reduced claims and less downtime.

Virtually on a daily basis we are helping AMI Group customers across the UK to locate and recover stolen equipment as a result of the use of state-of-the-art tracking devices which utilise GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and RF (Radio Frequency) technology. Once an AMI tracking device is fitted to a piece of machinery, customers can logon to the AMI Nexis web-based portal to establish its destination in the event of it being stolen.

Over £350 million worth of customer assets are now protected with AMI Group systems, including several of the UK’s national plant hirers and construction companies. As well as helping our customers recover their own plant, our tracking systems have also helped the Police to recover thousands of pounds of construction equipment not protected with an anti-theft deterrent.