A THIEF has been jailed for three years to deter others who target farmers, rural residents and businesses.

Farmers and police have welcomed the sentence handed out to car dealer Anthony Gray for stealing a JCB and trailer at midnight from a North Yorkshire field.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, said rural crime brought fear and devastation on a daily basis to those living outside towns.

“People in the country don’t feel safe,” he told Gray. “For not only do they fear their house may be broken into, but their property may be plundered as well as being targets for gangs of thieves of which you were one, thieves coming from out(side) of rural areas and the towns.

“There was undoubtedly, in my judgement, a degree of planning in respect of this offence and on one view of the matter it was stealing to order.”

A York Crown Court jury heard how an undercover police patrol spotted Gray at the junction of the A63 and A162 near South Milford 30 minutes after midnight on March 23 last year.

He was towing the stolen JCB and trailer from the field near Wistow, where other gang members had attached it to his 4x4 Mitsubishi, towards West Yorkshire where he lives.

They arrested him, put out a public appeal about the JCB, including in The Press, and the owner was located who later told police the theft had severely affected his business.

After the hearing Rachael Gillbanks, of the National Farmers Union in Yorkshire and the North-East, welcomed the sentence, saying: “It is really good we are seeing some prosecutions and a very clear impression people will be punished if they are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

She spoke of the fear farmers and others living in the countryside, particularly in isolated areas far from police stations, felt when they heard people moving around their properties at night.

“The impact can be tremendous,” she said. “Obviously they have to deal with the aftermath when their livestock is stolen, livestock injured, their vehicles and machinery are targeted, or having stone taken from their walls. These are obviously all part and parcel of their business.”

Assistant Chief Constable Amanda Oliver, of North Yorkshire Police, said the sentence sent a clear message that rural crime would not be tolerated.

“Cross-border criminals like Gray think they can prey on rural areas of North Yorkshire, using the road network to commit crime and avoid detection. They are wrong.

“Our continued commitment to protect rural communities – through the use of technology such as ANPR and specialist resources including our road crime team, roads policing group and rural taskforce – means that such criminals are very likely to be caught and prosecuted.”

Gray, 35, of Moor View Close, Castleford, denied theft, but was convicted by the jury after a short trial.

Giving evidence he claimed he had believed the JCB and trailer had belonged to a friend who had asked him to collect them from the field and take them to Brotherton, close to Castleford.

The jury heard the two stolen vehicles, together with some ramps and 75 litres of fuel stolen at the same time and not recovered, were worth £15,600.

After the verdict, they heard Gray had previously served a two-year sentence for conspiracy to commit Hanoi burglaries where gangs take car keys from houses and steal cars parked outside them.

The judge asked for a police statement of the impact of rural crime in North Yorkshire so he could take it into account when passing sentence.

Gray’s barrister Andrew Semple said since serving the burglary sentence, he had starting buying and selling cars. He had three children including a toddler.