Farm Diary January 28 2009

Why are there only a couple of cars patrolling at night? Why is it that Surrey for example is much more active and has a very different approach? Why is West Sussex intelligence systems not compatible with Surrey? Are all intelligence systems developed independently?

How can this be an advantage when people are starting to leave West Sussex due to being fed up with the amount of crime now taking place?

This time the thieves not only helped themselves to numerous tools and bits of expensive kit from the workshop, but stole my brand new chainsaw from the garden shed and broke into our house.

They stole a digital camera, Lorayne's handbag (credit cards, mobile phone, driving licence, money, personal belongings etc :) and in my office they hit the jackpot!

Behind the door is my gun safe, and the keys were in my desk; fairly well tucked away I thought. Having gone through every drawer in the desk, they found the keys, and took a five-shot semi automatic shotgun, and a high powered .243 rifle complete with telescopic sights and bi-pods. They opened the ammunition safe within the gun safe, and made off with the little (luckily) ammunition I had.

At 4.30am I got up to discover the back door ajar, but thought I must have forgotten to shut it properly and went out to check that everything was all right on the yard, and that the lads were getting ready to milk. It was only forty minutes or so later, when I returned, that I realised that all was not well.

I stopped all my credit cards and Lorayne's mobile phone at 5.30am; too late. Someone had drawn 300 out of our account, and 500 on a credit card (pin numbers in the diary, but not in a way that was instantly obvious). The purse has since been found with a few things in it and one of our short-wave radios from the workshop, by a kind lady (walking her dogs) who took the trouble to ring our dentist (card inside the purse), who kindly contacted us.

Now, who was it? Was it someone who wants to protect the fox that I was after, following the daylight attack on one of our peacocks? I don't think so. Was it someone who is constantly involved in petty crime in the area? More than likely.

Was it connected to the numerous thefts from this farm over the years, involving numerous quad bikes, vast quantities of workshop tools, chainsaws, hedge-cutters, timber etc: etc: Of course it was.

The police know where the purse and radio set were found, and it's fairly obvious who was responsible. The amount of thieving that takes place from farms in West Sussex has reached epic proportions. What is the Chief Constable going to do about it? Maybe he would care to write to this paper and tell us?

What are we as farmers and citizens of West Sussex going to do? Keep paying ever increasing insurance premiums? Spend vast quantities on security, cameras, alarms, locks and all the other bits of paraphernalia that seem to make no difference?

Farmers are practical people and we can be imaginative in our quest for solutions to irritating problems. What would the Chief Constable's reaction be to an imaginative 'security' measure on our workshop for example? Would he agree that if someone is attempting a break-in, that the person involved should not be there, and should something 'surprising' happen, it would be that person's fault? We should be told.

I am now involved in form-filling and serious hassle from insurance companies, waiting for new bank cards, credit cards, pin numbers and so on. The police? Very pleasant, helpful, doing their best with the limited resource at their disposal.

It seems to me that they are overwhelmed, and even when they catch perpetrators, the courts do very little to punish them. It must be soul destroying for the average bobby, and I detect an awkward sense of almost embarrassment, that things are so bad. We need leadership from the top. It seems to me that Chief Constables are more interested in politics and protecting their empires, than they are in discharging their duties.

The amount of time and money spent over the years dealing with 'hunt saboteurs' for example (not that I go hunting or follow); kid gloves and some serious politics took precedent, when ordinary people were tormented and assaulted by thugs.

It got so bad that a Chief Constable told us at an NFU meeting (when challenged) that 'Wearing a balaclava is not an offence', but got very annoyed when a good friend of mine responded that 'You would take a different view if it was done outside a bank'!

For years we have suffered in the countryside, and it seems that rural crime in West Sussex is no more important now than it has been in the past. This sounds as if I'm angry; too right I am, and if I am sent another offer of 'counselling' I shall explode.