Op Crassus

Operation Crassus was a national police operation run over two weeks in April/May 08 to identify stolen plant and equipment moving around the national roads network and in other locations. In the run up to the operation TER staff were kept busy providing briefings to roads policing, commercial vehicle crime, ports and other police officers and units.

Over £60,000 worth of stolen plant was recovered by TER as a direct result of Operation Crassus.

More than 750 roadside spot checks of equipment were made by traffic police and ports authorities using TER's services during the UK-wide purge, which aimed to raise awareness of plant and equipment crime, currently costing the UK more than £1million a week!

Among 14 items of of stolen equipment seized were five excavators, five trailers and two tractors, with one excavator still awaiting formal identification.

The plant was recovered in Staffordshire, South Yorkshire, South Wales, West Midlands, Lothian & Borders, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire and West Mercier on behalf of insurers Norwich Union, Zurich, NFU Mutual and AXA.

We received 445 calls from 37 different police forces during the two-week crack down. Every single police force and port authority in the country was involved in the operation, but the bulk of checks came from Staffordshire, South Yorkshire, West Mercia, Mersyside, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Humberside, with recoveries resuluting for eight forces.

TER provided on-site and over the phone technical assistance to the police 24 hours a day throughout the operation. It also sent out more than 5,000 TER Plant & Equipment Identification guides in the month before the crackdown, adding to the 30,000 already in circulation with the police, as well as providing briefings to roads policing, commercial vehicle crime, ports and other police officers and units.

"It is too long that the criminals have had their own way and Op Crassus was put in place to redress the balance", said PC Paul Ennis of the West Midlands Police Force Traffic Unit who instigated Op Crassus across all UK police forces. "We're very grateful to TER for contribution of their personnel, their data, knowledge and expertise".