Thieves feared to have slaughtered more than 100 stolen sheep – as criminals ‘weaponise’ cost of living crisis
When farmer Ed Lovejoy rounded up his sheep last month, he was left “stunned” and feeling “pretty sick”.
A total of 116 ewes had vanished from his flock of 460, and the missing livestock were worth £17,000.
Initially suspecting the animals may have escaped, Mr Lovejoy went searching near his farm in Woodchurch, Kent, but there was no trace of them.
It wasn’t until a witness reported seeing someone on a quad bike pushing the sheep to the side of a field that the reality dawned on the 40-year-old farmer.
Brazen thieves had staged a daring raid to steal the animals, which are now feared to have been slaughtered and their meat sold on the black market.
It comes amid warnings that Britain is a facing a “potential crime crisis” linked to the soaring cost of living.
Electricity thefts, shoplifting, insurance fraud and rural crime are reportedly on the increase as the cost of food and energy rises.
Fraudsters are “weaponising” the situation with a series of scams, a charity says, and organised crime groups are said to be viewing the crisis as an opportunity to recruit.
In the countryside, insurance company NFU Mutual has warned of an increase in rustling, and says that livestock worth £2.4m were stolen last year, and animals worth another £1.4m were taken in the first eight months of this year.
The stolen sheep were the Romney breed. File pic
Mr Lovejoy said the theft of his Romney sheep, a Kent breed, would have a “knock-on effect” on his business for two to three years.
He suspects the animals were taken to a “dodgy abattoir” or killed and the meat sold by the criminals themselves.
“There is years and years of breeding that goes into these sheep and you care for them all year round,” Mr Lovejoy told Sky News.
“For someone to just take them and steal them, it makes you feel pretty sick.
“I think they would have probably slaughtered them and put them into the food chain somehow.”
Fears livestock thieves can’t be stopped
Mr Lovejoy said he reported the theft to the police but the culprits have not been found.
He is now concerned the criminals will return and try to attempt to steal more.
“How do you secure 700 acres to stop people getting on it to steal sheep? I’m not sure it’s possible,” he said.
“It is a worry that they’re going to take more.
“If food becomes really expensive then there’s always a black market.
“If the cost of living crisis gets worse, there’s a chance we’re going to see more and more livestock thefts.”
One farmer near Plymouth painted the horns of his sheep bright green to make them identifiable and protect against thefts. Pic: NFU Mutual
Rise in violent crime predicted
A criminologist says the UK faces a “potential crime crisis” linked to the cost of living, including an increase in violence on the streets.
Dr Robert Hesketh, from Liverpool John Moores University, told Sky News: “As the cost of living crisis starts to peak, I think there will be an increase (in crime) – I think it’s a no-brainer.
“In areas like mine – marginalised areas, areas of social exclusion – it’s going to shoot up, particularly with young people.
“I heard on one occasion the family of a young person being told: ‘Look, we’ll pay your Sky bills, just let your lad do some deliveries for us’.
“You’ll get people within organised crime groups monopolise on this, because they know people are going to need money.
“Already there’s been an increase in electricity theft – it’s up 13% (in 2021-22 on the previous year).
“In communities like mine, it only takes one to get away with it and there’s [people] saying: ‘Get on to this’.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘I had to be the man of the house’
‘Police are going to have to prioritise’
Dr Hesketh said organised crime groups view the cost of living crisis as “an opportunity to get more manpower, more people involved in street crime and drug dealing, and those in charge keep their hands clean”.
“With the organised crime groups around my area, it’s very territorial,” he added.
“As people get desperate, and organised criminals get more greedy, then they’ll start overtaking other people’s turf…. obviously that becomes violent.
“Violence is part and parcel of organised crime… that’s how they thrive. Without violence, they’re nothing.”
Dr Hesketh said he believed the police “are going to have to prioritise”.
“Resources are short as it is, they’re going to focus mainly on more serious violent acts, I think,” he added.
Victims targeted ‘left, right and centre’
Victim Support said it had seen people targeted by scams around the government’s council tax rebate and an increase in people trying to take out “quick loans” through unregulated services.
Lisa Mills, the charity’s senior fraud manager, told Sky News: “People are in this hot state – they’re anxious about the cost of living – so they are taking more risks than they would normally.
“This scenario now is going to be weaponised by the fraudsters. We saw it with the pandemic.
“When people are feeling anxious and uncertain, their ability to rationalise and think about things is going to be compromised.
“What we have seen is people who are desperately in need of money are taking unnecessary risks by taking out loans online.
“We know people are going to be targeted left, right and centre.”
Ms Mills warned of a rise in “money muling” – when a criminal persuades someone to put “dirty” money into their account before the funds are then moved into another account.
“It’s in effect money laundering – it’s washing dirty money,” she said.
“We have seen instances where younger people are being promised free trainers if they accept money to then forward on.
“Your guard is down in this time of crisis and people will just be at the end of their tether thinking ‘I need a quick fix now’, and this is being offered to me and it sounds great.”
Ms Mills said that some unregulated loans may charge high interest rates or the loan may not even exist.
She said: “As soon as they pay money, a website gets taken down, you’ve lost your money – so the loan didn’t exist in the first place.
“It’s capturing people that way.”
Read more:
Teens making money for families by joining gangs
Police watchdog suggests officers could ignore some shoplifting
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has said forces have considered the impact of the cost of living crisis but denied reports it was preparing for a “tidal wave” of violent crime and public disorder.
An NPCC spokesman said: “Our ongoing priority remains prevention, and we continually work with communities to gather intelligence around crime and disorder.
“As a result, policing is able to regularly intervene early to prevent incidents or their escalation due to this community intelligence to keep the public safe.”
UK
How Britain’s most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective’s talk
Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.
Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.
Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”
Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.
After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron.
“They said what are we going to do?” said Mr Brown.
“I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives.”
Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown. Pic: Robert Mulhern
Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink’s-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery.
Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery.
He said: “He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it.”
The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole.
Read more:
What happened to the Brink’s-Mat gold?
Kenneth Noye, left, and Stephen Cameron
Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.
“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”
The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.
“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.
“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”
The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.
A Sky News podcast told the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist in 2019
I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.
“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.
He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.
“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.
“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”
He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.
Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years – with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait.
After the split in 2009, for many years Noel said he would never go back – and for a long time, as the brothers exchanged insults through separate interviews (and on social media, for Liam), it seemed pretty unlikely to ever happen.
But now, here they are. As they walked out on stage at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, all eyes were on the Gallaghers for a sense of their relationship – dare we say it, friendship? – now after all these years.
There was no reference to their fall-out or making up, but the gestures were there – lifting hands together as they walked out for the first time.
The headline “OASIS REUNITED” was shown on stage at the gig. Pic: PA
Fans at the Oasis gig. Pic: PA
Headlines and tweets of speculation and then confirmation of the reunion filled the screens as the show started. “This is happening,” said one, repeatedly.
In the end, it was all about the music.
Liam has received criticism in the past for his voice not being what it once was during his solo or Beady Eye performances, but back on stage with his brother tonight he delivered exactly what fans would have hoped for – a raw, steely-eyed performance, snarling vocals, and the swagger that makes him arguably the greatest frontman of his day.
This was Oasis sounding almost as good as they ever have.
Fans sang along and held up their phones to film as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Oasis: ‘It’s good to be back’
They opened with Hello, because of course, “it’s good to be back”. And then Acquiesce, and those lyrics: “Because we need each other/ We believe in one another.”
The song is said to be about friendship in the wider sense, rather than their brotherly bond and sibling rivalry, but you can’t help but feel like it means something here.
Over two hours, they played favourite after favourite – including Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and Roll With It.
Liam Gallagher as Oasis takes to the stage in Cardiff. Pic: PA
In the mid-section, Liam takes his break for Noel to sing Talk Tonight, Half The World Away and Little By Little; the tempo slows but there is by no means a lull, with the fans singing all his words back to him.
Liam returns for hits including Stand By Me, Slide Away, Whatever and Live Forever, before sending the crowd wild (or even wilder) with Rock And Roll Star.
Noel Gallagher performing on stage. Pic: PA
An Oasis fan is pointing at the stage during the gig. Pic: PA
When the reunion announcement was made last summer, it quickly became overshadowed by the controversy of dynamic pricing causing prices to rocket. As he has done on X before, Liam addressed the issue on stage with a joke.
“Was it worth the £4,000 you paid for the ticket?” he shouted at one point. “Yeah,” the crowd shouts back; seemingly all is forgiven.
After Rock And Roll Star, the dream that very quickly became a reality for this band, Noel introduced the rest of the group, calling Bonehead a “legend”.
Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs of Oasis. Pic: PA
Liam Gallagher carried a tambourine in his mouth during the concert. Pic: PA
Then he acknowledges all their young fans, some who maybe weren’t even born when they split. “This one is for all the people in their 20s who’ve never seen us before, who’ve kept this shit going,” he says before the encore starts with The Masterplan.
Noel follows with Don’t Look Back In Anger, and the screens fill with Manchester bees in reference to the arena bombing and how the song became the sound of hope and defiance for the city afterwards.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘I’d have paid £10,000 to see them’
Two fans sat on their friends’ shoulders as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
During Wonderwall, there’s a nice touch as Liam sings to the crowd: “There are many things I would like to say to you, but I don’t speak Welsh.”
It is at the end of Champagne Supernova, which closes the set, that it happens; Noel puts down his guitar, and they come together for a high-five and a back-slap, a blink-and-you’d miss it hug.
Read more:
What you need to know about the Oasis tour
Liam Gallagher hits out at council after fans branded ‘rowdy’
“Right then, beautiful people, this is it,” Liam had told the crowd as he introduced the song just a few minutes earlier. “Nice one for putting up with us over the years.”
From the roar of the audience, it’s safe to say most people here would agree it’s been worth it.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike