ORGANISED criminal gangs are behind a sharp increase in sheep rustling across Dorset, rural experts have warned.

Countryside crime has come under the spotlight in recent days, following the theft of 25 ewes and 45 lambs from a field near Dorchester last month.

But this was just the latest in a spate of thefts.

Fifty pregnant ewes were taken from a farm near Blandford, from a field at Hayward's Lane, Child Okeford, on April 18.

Three days after this incident, at Mill Lane, Wimborne, 32 ewes and 62 lambs were stolen by a gang in an overnight raid.

PCSO Tom Balchin, from Dorset Police's Rural Crime Team, told the Echo: "We would say these sheep thefts are connected to organised crime, due to the fact you need a trailer, you need dogs, a quad bike. There are a lot of people in a chain involved in this crime."

One difficulty facing police is that sheep are recorded in a different way to cattle.

"With cows, they have a passport, a bit like you and I," explained PCSO Balchin. "But sheep don't have this passport, they have a different system of recording."

So criminal gangs, with connections to big English cities and Europe, have been removing the tags on sheep's ears and replacing them with new tags, making it almost impossible for the animal's ownership to be tracked.

The lambs, ewes and sheep are thought to be sold on to either unsuspecting farmers, or taken to illegal abattoirs.

NFU Mutual currently ensures more than two thirds of Dorset's farmers.

They produce a rural crime report every August, and work is well underway collating statistics for the 2018 publication.

Tim Price, rural affairs specialist at NFU Mutual, told the Echo there had been a significant rise in rural crime in every region of the UK apart from the north east.

"Overall, we have seen an increase in the cost of rural crime of 13.6 per cent in 2017," he said. "Dorset is a particular hotspot for livestock theft at the moment."

Mr Price added: "The trend we are seeing is for more organised crime, involving both national and international crime gangs, particularly with the tractors and other vehicles. "And the criminals are becoming more brazen.

"They will quite brazenly come onto farms in the daytime and load a tractor or a quad bike onto the back of a lorry and take it away."

A tractor was stolen from stables at Arrowsmith Road at the end of May, and a farm at Organford reported the theft of an Orange Kubota STV 36 tractor earlier this month.

Two tractors stolen from the UK in 2016, worth £96,000, were recently recovered from Lithuania.

And nine tractors taken from British farms have been discovered in northern Cyprus.

According to statistics rural crime peaked in 2010, at which time criminal gangs found it was easy to steal tractors and other farm vehicles and equipment.

Since then police, manufacturers, farmers and insurers have implemented better farm security and security measures.

In 2010 the cost of tractor theft in the UK stood at £10 million, but that had halved by 2016.

However, Mr Price said: "We are now seeing a worrying rise in rural crime, of all types.

"All vehicles, tools and equipment from farms are being targeted."

Criminals monitor farms to see where equipment and livestock is being kept, then swoop - sometimes with military precision.

"Stolen sheep are very often being slaughtered outside of the officially regulated system," said Mr Price. "We don't know how or where, but we know this is a strong possibility because of the numbers being stolen. These animals very rarely turn up alive."

The latest weapon in the fight against rustlers is a new GPS tagging system.

Basically it works by sending the farmer a notification when his flock is on the move, enabling the farmer to contact the authorities.

In 2015 and 2016 Dorset did not experience any sheep thefts.

Then, last year, there were two separate thefts involving eight sheep.

But so far this year Dorset Police's Rural Crime Team has dealt with seven separate thefts, involving 186 sheep - an increase of 2,225 per cent.

At around £100 per animal, depending on age and breed, this makes the illegal sheep trade an attractive option for criminals.

Mr Price, who agrees an intelligence-led policing effort is the best way forward, said: "It is very difficult to trace meat which is being sold illicitly, either into the catering trade or through unusual outlets to the public.

"What we are concerned about is there has been a national rise in rural crime, and unless it is tackled it could grow out of hand very easily.

"Once that happens it will be very difficult to get it back to a reasonable level.

"The countryside is a big place and even with more police, it couldn't be patrolled effectively."

He called for more projects fostering better community links, which have been launched in Dorset, and farmers taking better steps to safeguard their equipment and livestock, as the best way to tackle eh criminals.

Contact ruralcrimeteam@Dorset.pnn.police.uk for crime reduction advice.