A SUCCESSFUL farming scheme to combat agricultural crime which uses state-of-the-art technology to send messages to farmers’ mobile phones is to be expanded.

FarmWatch already has more than 100 members in Carnforth and the upper Lune Valley and it will now be expanded to the lower Lune Valley to strengthen the scheme even further The initiative allows officers to share information with farmers, stable owners and other country businesses who are otherwise hard to reach because of their working conditions.

Multi-send software is used to send text messages alerting users to potential criminal behaviour, and farmers are encouraged to inform police of sightings of suspicious vehicles, worrying of stock, poachers and other unusual activity.

This information is then given to all users of the scheme to make farmers more vigilant and protective of their property at key times.

PC Carl Wood said: “We will offer crime prevention advice, our work contact mobile numbers, and a free text messaging service, whereby the farmers will receive police messages via a text message.

“This scheme obviously will help form closer working links with those hard to reach farmers and hopefully improve their confidence and allow us to share far more information in the future.”

He added: ““I hope that the farming community will report suspicious sightings to the police straight away time. This will then help us build up a bigger picture of what is happening in these rural areas and allow us to better target travelling criminals.”

PC Wood and PCSO Pete Wood will launch the lower Lune Valley roll out on Monday, November 2, and all members of the local farming and gaming communities are being urged to join.

Officers will also be at Lancaster and Bentham Auction Marts on a monthly basis from December for farmers to drop by for a chat.