Tool theft from vans

Have about £10k of tools in the back of my van.
Thankfully I don't work in schitt hole lawless towns or cities anymore.
If I do, it will be as a labourer. And will be transported there by someone else.
 
A friend recently had all his tools nicked from van while working - van was just outside the house he was working on.
And neighbour's carpenter had his tools nicked while working.
And, somebody caught 2 men with a blow torch snooping around at 4am not so long ago.

All a bit crazy. The saddest thing though, is that if people didn't buy cheap tools from boot fairs and gumtree, there would be much less demand for them!
 
I always thought that there were two distinct classes of tool thieves; at the bottom end of the scale you have the druggies who are generally pretty inept and will nick anything they can lay their hands on to finance their next fix, so that shiny new £500 drill you left in the cab of the van is probably only going to amount to a couple of three "fixes". At the other end of the scale you get the professionals like the bunch of bastards active in central Manchester in recent weeks; these guys seem to employ "spotters" on mopeds to find target vans and to warn them of the approach of the police which allows them to get on with the task of peeling down the side doors of vans and emptying them of anything of value. We've had four guys done on site in the last 10 days, all the same MO. Talking to lads on other jobs we aren't alone (they've got to pay for Crimbo somehow?)

The full-time thieves sell to professional "fences" who "de-mark" the tools and then either sit on them for a while before selling through auctions, eBay, etc or for some stuff (especially the bigger stuff) they'll pack it in a container and get it shipped out of the UK pretty quickly. This I learned the hard way a few years back when I had a workshop turned over. In that case neither the thieves nor the fence got prosecuted (the CPS dropped the case at court), but at least I had the satisfaction in learning a little while later that the "fence" had had his property (house, workshop and stock) all seized and sold by HM Customs and Excise - naughty boy hadn't registered for VAT and had no receipts so they back registered him on the basis of value of stock on hand. He also got prison time for his sins. Personally I'd have had him burned at the stake.....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is there a link between VAT fraud and theiving.
Or is VAt fraud just another method of thieving?

Bloke near me has spent his life thieving. Tractors, livestock etc. Never caught or prosecuted.
His name is so bad I even know someone who had his £60k tractor stolen who raided his property and retrieved the tractor himself.
Now he faces 3 years jail for £700,000's worth of VAt fraud.
And criminal assets bureau are seizing his farmland property. >chortle<
And anything else of value.
 
Last edited:
My friend leaves his rottweiler in his workshop at night.
This dog is trained not to bark but let people in and attack.
One day he will find bits and pieces of thieving bastardds and the worst bit would be the clean up.
He reckons that if it happens he will not be in trouble because he has a sign on the door and the dog is registered.
I told him to fit a camera so the profit from the footage would pay for his legal bill...
 
Trouble is it can happen to anyone and anywhere (not just s**tholes). Someone had there van stolen a week or so ago, near me, but a posher estate.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ryler said:
Is there a link between VAT fraud and theiving.
Click to expand...

It might be that you sell a million pounds worth of tractors a year.

All of them were stolen and so you obviously have no receipts or evidence of purchase. You filed off all serial no's and other identifying info to make it difficult for anyone to prove you knew they were stolen

You make half a million pounds a year

You don't declare it for tax or VAT because it would draw attention to your illegal trade

But if you are selling that volume, you ought to be registered for VAT and submit returns, keep accounts

You didn't

So on top of everything else, you can be prosecuted for VAT offences.

Might be easier to prove.

Al Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top