BRITAIN’S tool theft epidemic is being exploited by Russia in its war on Ukraine, The Sun can reveal.
Expensive surveying tools stolen from construction projects in the UK have been smuggled to sanctions-hit Russia.
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It is suspected the laser-guided 3D Leica surveying equipment – costing up to £70,000 – has then been used for military purposes by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Leica Geosystems ceased trading with Russia after the gangster state’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
But a British police investigation into an organised crime group specialising in stealing tools, has uncovered evidence that surveying equipment stolen here has ended up in Russia.
The sanction-busting tactic is being fuelled by an £800 million-a-year plague of tool theft in the UK which is blighting tradesmen and also impacting national security.
One source said: “It is a problem for the government and national security.”
Expensive tunnelling equipment and boring drills are also being targeted by Eastern European crime groups.
Meanwhile, the same gangs are also hitting ‘white van man’ and destroying their livelihoods.
The situation is so bad that construction giants Balfour Beatty are using a secure site location for workers on the Crossrail project to leave tools safely rather than take them back to hotels.
Met Police sergeant Dave Catlow, who leads a South London team targeting tool thieves, said: “This is rather than workers taking their tools to their hotels.
“It is not just about expensive pieces of kit being stolen…one missing drilling piece can stop boring machines from working at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds a day.
“It affects the national infrastructure.”
Inspector Mark Connolly, who heads an East London blitz on tool theft, adds: “A lot of trades people don’t sleep and peer out of their window all night so they can go to work the next day.”
The Sun can reveal how a survey by plumbing and drainage manufacturer Wavin has found six out of ten plumbers – 60% – in the UK have fallen victim to tool theft.
The company’s Northern Europe vice president Dan Scott, said of the data: “Tool theft is becoming all too common in our industry, and having a detrimental effect on the livelihoods of plumbers.
“Conducting this research has put a spotlight on the issue and helped identify realistic solutions to reduce the amount of tool theft in the UK.
“It is up to the government and trade bodies to listen and provide the industry with the support it needs to ensure we can progress towards a brighter and safer future.”
In recent years total loss from theft and vandalism on the UK trades industry has reached £800 million a year.
Sgt Caplow
In other surveys, up to 78% cent of tradesmen and women have reported being hit by theft of tools with victims saying they have been left facing ruin and even contemplating suicide.
There were 25,000 reports of tool thefts last year but police believe the true figure is much higher.
Sgt Caplow said current crime recording systems make it impossible to check on specific items.
He added: “In recent years total loss from theft and vandalism on the UK trades industry has reached £800 million a year.
“A quarter of all trades people don’t report it(theft or vandalism) to the police.”
East London-based plumber Stanley Tabersham, 36, has been hit twice by thieves who broke into his van.
The married dad-of-three said: “Last time I had my tools stolen I lost about £5,000 worth of equipment and missed out on £2,000 of work.
Tool theft is becoming all too common in our industry, and having a detrimental effect on the livelihoods of plumbers.
Wavin Vice President Dan Scott
“I was parked outside a school. I was going to survey a job and was only gone for 20 minutes and came back to find the back doors of my Fiat Doblo van were open and my tools were gone.”
Stanley was helped back on his feet by his father – also a plumber – but said: “I was ready to give it up and go and fill shelves at Tesco for an easier life.
“Nearly everyone I have spoken to in this trade has had some sort of experience.
“I know of people who will take a mate with them on a job just to sit in the motor and watch the tools.
“Now I don’t take every job I am given. If I can’t park outside a job and see my van I won’t take it. I can’t afford to take the risk of it being broken into again.”
Car boot sales are a common way for thieves to sell stolen tools for a fraction of their value.
In May this year the Met Police seized £150,000 worth of hooky tools at a boot sale at Willow farm, Romford, East London.
Six Romanians – four men and two women – were arrested and a further £350,000 worth of equipment was recovered from an address in Hackney – bringing the total value of nicked tools seized up to £500,000.
Tool theft is destroying lives and crippling our construction industry.
Labour’s Portsmouth North MP Amanda Martin
Among items recovered were three hi-tech Leica surveillance tools used to monitor earth and infrastructure movements each worth more than £30,000.
A £20,000 device for measuring ground depth was seized along with a mechanical heist worth £17,000.
The previous month, cops seized £50,000 worth of stolen tools at another boot fair in Rainham.
Inspector Connolly, who led the East London boot fair raids, said: “Boot sales are a way of making cash which can’t be traced.”
Police are urging local planning and trading standards authorities to step up and monitor car boot sales.
At present, landowners can use their estates for 14 days a year without planning permission with boot sales making up to £10,000 for organisers.
Sergeant Catlow said: “Are local authorities enforcing it(the 14-days law)? From what we have seen so far, many of them are not.”
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His colleague Inspector Connolly adds: “We need local authorities – planning and trading standards – to get on board.
“They need to put more resources into it.”
Efforts to put tool thieves behind bars are also being hampered by the law with villains rarely facing jail sentences.
Sgt Catlow said: “At the moment it is very hard to get a custodial offence for theft of goods under £5,000.
“But the loss of earnings and damage to a vehicle means the real cost is often more than that amount.”
Labour’s Portsmouth North MP Amanda Martin has tabled The Theft of Tools of Trade (Sentencing) Bill, which has had its second reading in the Commons.
HARSHER SENTENCES
It proposes harsher sentences for tool thieves, recognising the financial loss to victims of being unable to work and having their vehicles damaged.
The MP said: “Tool theft is destroying lives and crippling our construction industry.
“Stealing a van full of tools does not just mean the loss of equipment worth thousands of pounds, but weeks without work, lost contracts, and mental distress.
“Construction already has the highest suicide rate of any profession, four times higher than other occupations, and tool theft is making this crisis worse.
“Too often, sentencing is not reflecting the true harm these thefts cause. I am campaigning to put victims at the heart of sentencing and to ensure courts treat tool theft with the seriousness it deserves…”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – famously the son of a toolmaker – acknowledged the “devastating impact” of tool theft earlier this year.
The PM said tool theft can mean “thousands of pounds of work lost, and with a huge impact to businesses and to families.”
Police are urging trades workers to mark their tools with invisible synthetic DNA fluid – costing around £1 an item – which provides a unique identification code shown under UV lighting.
Construction already has the highest suicide rate of any profession, four times higher than other occupations.
Amanda Martin
Sgt Caplow said: “It is virtually impossible to prove the offence of handling stolen goods.
“We have got thousands of tools on pallets which we have recovered but can’t tell who owns them.
“But this DNA fluid provides a unique code.
“It not only increases the chance of getting tools back for the owner but also improves the chances of us getting a conviction.
“It is very important for trades people to mark up new tools.”
Clair Frame, of SelectaDNA, which has their own sniffer dog trained to detect the invisible codes, says: “The technology is providing protection for tradesmen and hire companies.
“We also provide products critical to infrastructure like surveying equipment.
“It is used to uniquely mark with a synthetic DNA code.
“That is then applied to the tools and registered onto a police searchable database.
“If tools are stolen and police recover them, as we have seen from operations at car boot
sales, it means they can be returned to their owners and used for prosecutions.
“It is a great resource for police and tradesmen to be able to use.”
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