DORSET is the second worst place in the UK for sheep rustling with one farmer reporting losses of up to £50,000, a new report has revealed.

A Freedom of Information request showed that overall in the UK, 9,635 sheep were stolen in 2018, up from 7,606 in 2017 and 6,337 in 2016.

The biggest leap in thefts occurred in the Humberside area but Dorset and Yorkshire tied as the second worst place for crime of this nature.

However, as the BBC's Inside Out show revealed on Monday, the theft of nearly 10,000 sheep across England and Wales in 2018 has only resulted in one charge, in Hertfordshire.

John Hoskin, who runs a farm near Dorchester in Dorset, said sheep had regularly been taken from his fields and the numbers had gone up with each raid. He said the livestock thefts were costing him up to £50,000.

"Do we get rid of the sheep and say 'forget it, we're not going to provide illegal income for somebody else?'" he said, referring to his future in farming.

A rural insurance company said it understood that organised criminal gangs were stealing the animals for slaughter and Dorset Rural Officer PCSO Tom Balchin agreed that could be one of the reasons police have noticed 'a big increase' in sheep rustling.

"We don't know why it's increased but its not known what's happening - it could be the price of lamb, farmers stealing from other farmers,or for an illegal abbatoir."

He said there has also been speculation that sheep could be taken for 'smokies', an illegal West African delicacy in which a dead sheep is blowtorched and served with its intestines still intact.

He said that whilst police investigated all livestock theft reports, the crime was 'very hard' to prosecute. "It normally occurs in a very rural area, there'll be no CCTV no one within earshot and no witnesses."

However, he said police were always keen to seek CCTV after thefts had occurred and urged farmers to set up wildlife cams and to ensure their gates were securely locked and hedge gaps blocked up.