WHEN a JCB was stolen from outside Royal Wootton Bassett three-years-ago PC Marc Jackson wasn’t expecting to see it again.

But the black-market digger re-emerged by chance in Poland, when its then owner took it in to a JCB dealership for repairs and mechanics identified it as having been stolen. PC Jackson is currently battling to get it repatriated.

The Highworth-raised officer said: “There were no witnesses and no CCTV - as is normally the case for a rural location.

“It’s gone off to wherever then, three years later, a Polish farmer has taken it into the JCB workshop and had some repairs done and it’s been flagged up as stolen.”

The story shows the changing face of the rural crime in the county. It’s organised, global in reach and can be fiendishly difficult to prosecute.

PC Jackson, 41, is one of two members of Wiltshire Police’s rural crime team. Based out of a cabin in the grounds of the police headquarters, PC Emily Thomas completes the small unit.

Established nine years ago in response to a rise in hare coursing and thefts from farms, its role is to co-ordinate the force’s work on wildlife crime, heritage offences and practices like poaching and livestock rustling that can have a devastating impact on the county’s farming community.

And while there are only two in the team, they have trained a further 20 police officers up as rural crime champions – essentially giving them a better knowledge of the law in areas like wildlife crime.

After a dip a few years ago, police nationally are battling an increase in poaching and hare coursing. With its vast spaces of open land in the Pewsey Vale and Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire is no different. Farmland is relatively easy to access, the county is centrally placed between cities in Wales and the south east and the hare population is comparatively healthy.

The men involved will advertise their meets on social media or closed WhatsApp groups. Hundreds of pounds can change hands, as men bet on which dog will be first to the hare or trade dog breeding rights.

The gangs could be involved in other crimes: drug dealing, rogue trading, burglaries and driving offences.

“It’s surprising how many people still have this image of a poacher, walking around with a couple of dead rabbits and a pheasant,” said PC Jackson.

“That’s gone now. This is about usually large groups of men in two or three cars, travelling the countryside, breaking into fields, gates, causing damage, making threats and intimidating farm workers.”

In Wiltshire, an operation to specifically target poachers resulted in arrest figures tripling in a year. And Operation Artemis led to another success for the officers when they arrested a well-known Salisbury hare courser for stealing wild snowdrop bulbs – a protected species – from a nature reserve in the south of the county.

PC Thomas, 40, said: “When we went round to arrest him he was potting them up in the sheds.” PC Jackson added: “Those we had we were able to get back up to the site and get them replanted.”

While it is unlikely crimes like sheep worrying will ever disappear, the thieves are getting more tech-savvy.

Farming is becoming more technical, with GPS systems used to plan planting and harvesting. And they’re worth a lot of money. Last month, three Starfire GPS systems were taken from three tractors in Urchfont, near Devizes. Together, they were worth an estimated £18,000. Officers suspect the items are stolen to order and transported in bulk to countries across Europe and beyond.

Technology is helping, too. Last month, the team bought a drone – funded by the National Farmers Union – to help fight farm crime. And GPS trackers can help track down stolen machinery in record time.

“We had a quad bike stolen from off the Salisbury Plain and recovered near Frome three hours later purely because it had a tracker on it. If it hadn’t had a tracker on it, we probably would never have found it,” said PC Jackson.

Earlier this month, the rural crime team launched Operation Apollo in a fresh push to tackle heritage crime.

Officers want to raise awareness of the impact of things like lead being stolen from church roofs and rogue metal detectorists taking artefacts from Wiltshire’s historic sites.

It follows recent incidents that have seen around 20 holes dug illegally at ancient Old Sarum in a suspected theft bid and paint daubed on monuments around Avebury.

PC Thomas said: "Op Apollo will help us protect the wonderful history left by our ancestors in the many listed buildings and heritage sites around the county."

Police say they want the public to be their eyes and ears. But they’re also working closely with organisations like English Heritage and local metal detectorist groups.

David Rees, chairman of the western region of the National Council for Metal Detecting, welcomed the heritage crime push.

The 71-year-old, who has been involved in the hobby for more than three decades and attends Wiltshire Police’s rural crime partnership meetings, said metal detectorists could flag to police those up to no good in the countryside.

Condemning those hell-bent on using their equipment to take artefacts illegally from historic sites or land on which they do not have permission to be, Mr Rees said: “I think they should be prosecuted wherever possible and at the very least the police should be aware of who they are.”