Two 'calculated criminals' have been sentenced to prison after stealing over £200,000 worth of high-value tractor GPS kits.
Tomas Staukauskas, 32, of Hull and Mantas Palionis, 31, also of Hull, were sentenced after pleading guilty of handling stolen goods and going equipped for theft.
Humberside Police recovered 48 GPS units and screens that the pair had stolen.
An investigation was launched after officers located a car that had been identified as being involved in multiple high value thefts on 30 September.
The driver of the car, Staukauskas, was arrested after an on-foot chase.
Inside the car, a substantial amount of large farming GPS devices were found, several of which had been reported as stolen.
They were wrapped in tinfoil to prevent the signal of the devices being detected.
Following a warrant at an address on Abbey Street, in Hull, a van reported stolen from the Cambridgeshire area in 2022 was found to be displaying false plates.
Inside the van was a GPS signal jamming device and more false plates.
The keys from the stolen vehicle were found to have been hidden in a cupboard inside the address and, subsequently, Palionis was arrested.
The investigation revealed that Staukauskas had visited a storage unit and moved multiple items from his car to inside the storage container.
Further GPS devices were found inside the unit.
Humberside Police Officer Andrew Green said the pair were 'calculated criminals', whose crimes left farmers 'without vital equipment that they need to do their jobs'.
“This was a complex case that involved work from multiple teams across the force as well as colleagues from North Yorkshire Police," he said.
"The theft of GPS receivers continues to be a local priority for our force and we will not tolerate anyone who thinks it is okay to target our farmers in this way.”
Following the sentencing, NFU Mutual warned that the scale of GPS theft had 'worryingly ramped up in recent years'.
The rural insurer's data shows that in 2022, the cost of GPS theft increased by 15% to £1.8 million.
Bob Henderson, head of engineering at NFU Mutual, said: “Not only does GPS theft cause disruption to important farm work, it places additional pressures financially and emotionally on farmers.
"It is important farmers are not complacent by this latest news and remain on guard by updating their security and recording any serial numbers and photographing GPS kit.”
