Keep Watch on plant theft
24 June 2022
Devised in partnership by Police Scotland, The Scottish Business Resistance Centre and Neighbourhood Watch Scotland, Construction Watch Scotland is an alert-based system to keep people informed about incidents involving the theft of plant equipment, tools and stored fuel.
“When we become aware of criminal activity, we will send out an alert to those who are signed up to quickly be advised of offences or suspicious activity in their area,” said Stuart Ward, national designing out crime manager for Police Scotland, who promoted the initiative at the ScotPlant exhibition in Edinburgh as part of SPARC, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime.
“Construction Watch Scotland covers the whole of Scotland and can offer advice on prevention tactics to protect building sites, securing tools, equipment and plant machinery, guidance on how to reduce fuel theft opportunities, and sharing of best practice.”
Looking at recent alerts, a significant proportion of reported incidents have involved fuel theft of some kind from equipment, vehicles, HGVs and fuel tanks on construction sites.
This is hardly surprising given the current price inflation and the recent switch from red to white diesel. Police guidance suggests that fuel tanks should only hold what is necessary and that managers should try to avoid storing excessive amounts of fuel on site, or in vehicles or plant.
To sign up to this useful service click here.
