HITACHI Construction Machinery UK, in partnership with The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group and the police, recently hosted a training event designed to educate officers about current threats around construction and agricultural machinery theft.
The event was attended 60 officers from five regional force areas including Police Scotland, Northumbria, Cleveland, North Yorkshire, and Durham constabularies.
The officers attended a full day’s training, delivered by specialist police training officers and industry experts including DC Chris Piggott, of The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVcis) and police liaison officer Peter Wilson from CESAR.
The event offered tips on how to identify stolen plant, which included demonstrations on machinery identification.
CITS chairman Ian Elliott, head of security for Clancy, opened the event, alongside Seumas Ascott, head of security for J. Murphy representing the industry, whilst superintendent Andrew Huddleston of Northumbria Police highlighted the need for working in partnership to tackle crime.
David Roberts, CEO of Hitachi Construction Machinery UK, welcomed the officers to the Hitachi facilities in the north east of England and the special conference facility which was set up specifically for the training day within the firm’s warehouse.
“On behalf of Hitachi Construction Machinery UK Ltd (HCMUK), we are delighted to be participating in this event with all the key stakeholders in the CITS group,” David Roberts said. “OEMs and dealers have a responsibility to our customers to help protect their assets from theft, as well as a responsibility to the police to help identify those that are stolen, and at HCMUK we take this very seriously.
“We must continue to evolve and develop products and adapt to changing trends like the rise in thefts of technology. That is why these awareness and training sessions are so important in enabling officers to learn the most up to date knowledge to tackle crime.”
The event was also supported by the Home Office industry schemes, CESAR, and MicroCESAR, both identification marking systems used to identify ownership of plant and machinery used on farms and construction sites.
