The BBC reports that private security patrols are being used to protect crops and expensive farm equipment amid a rural crime wave in England and Wales

Farmers have told the BBC that police rarely solve rural offences and are not doing enough to tackle organised crime.

Suspects are almost 25% more likely to be charged for crimes in urban areas than in the countryside, according to BBC data analysis.

The Home Office says it plans to tackle the "challenges" of rural crime. Last year, Eveey Hunter's farm, in rural Hertfordshire, was devastated by a crime wave targeting machinery.

One night in late summer, GPS components costing £20,000 each were cut out of all three of her tractors, halting work for three weeks.

"We got back to the field at seven o'clock in the morning after leaving at one o'clock in the night and my brother said over the radio 'we won't be doing any farming today'," she says.

BBC analysis has found that in rural areas, 31,411 suspects were charged for 455,845 recorded crimes in 2021 - a rate of 6.89%.

In urban areas, 325,727 charges were handed out for 3,809,865 offences, a rate of 8.55%.

That means the proportion of suspects being charged for offences in towns and cities is 24% higher than in the countryside, according to BBC analysis of crime outcomes broken down to local neighbourhoods.

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BBC - Tractors and crops targeted in rural crime wave