As a young tradesman determined to carve out a career as a carpenter Charlie Waller spent years after finishing school saving up to buy the tools needed for his job. But the 23-year-old was left devastated earlier this year when he was targeted by heartless thieves who broke into his work van whilst he was working on a property.
He is one of the growing number of Britain’s army of tradesmen falling victim to the tool theft epidemic who are now falling victim once every 21 minutes, shock new figures show. A Freedom of Information request has found that in the past 12 months 25,525 tool thefts were reported in total at a cost of over £40 million to the nation’s workforce with almost four in five tradespeople now having suffered tool theft in their careers. Like millions of tradespeople, Charlie, from Surrey, regularly carries several thousand pounds worth of tools and equipment in his van. He had just started work on a new project when thieves drilled out the rear door lock of his van while it was parked outside the property he was working on in Beckenham, Bromley.
A member of the public raised the alarm after spotting the thieves emptying the van but when she
confronted them, she was threatened with a screwdriver, before the crooks fled the scene.
Had she not intervened, they likely would have cleared out the entire contents of the van but in under five minutes they still made of £5,000 worth of equipment, including power tools such
as a blower, drills, reciprocating, skill, chop, and track saws, a jigsaw, router, and nail gun.
Charlie said: “I was just starting in a new job and had worked really hard to build my collection of tools and had invested a lot of money in them. I was absolutely devastated and furious when they were nicked. It’s not just the worry about not being able to work and losing money, your tools are really personal to you, so losing them is an emotional blow too.
“To begin with I wasn’t even going to report that they’d been stolen, but my mate persuaded me to do so, and I was really glad that I did. Although the police said it was unlikely that I’d ever get my stuff back, having the police report enabled me to claim on my insurance. The payout was a lifesaver and meant I didn’t have to rely on borrowed tools for too long.
“But I’m now paranoid about tool theft. I hate parking my van or leaving my tools where I can’t see them.”
Charlie’s plight is a scene being played out across the country with workers also being forced to pay higher premiums because of the theft explosion.
Insurance giants Direct Line’s FOI request found that Derbyshire Constabulary reported the biggest rise with its latest figures showing a 36% year-on-year jump in the crime. This was followed by Dorset 31%, Gwent 31%, Suffolk 18% and City of London 13%.
The top 10 hotspots was rounded off by South Yorkshire 11%, North Yorkshire 10%, Norfolk 9%, West Yorkshire 6% and Bedfordshire 6%.
However efforts to tackle the crime nationwide have yielded an overall fall in tool theft across the UK by almost a fifth compared to 2023.
Despite this hundreds of tradespeople joined a protest rally marching on Parliament Square to demand the government takes action with stricter enforcement of existing laws, particularly around tool theft.
Participants stage a ‘go-slow’ convoy in Westminster, driving through the area for two hours to raise awareness of the issue.
The new report said: “Over the past year, tradespeople have taken a stand by advocating for restrictions on the sale of second-hand tools and tougher sentencing for tool thieves.
“Their efforts may have been the catalyst for tool theft falling by 18% in 2024 -a significant decline after at least four years of rising numbers since Direct Line first began reporting tool theft figures in 2020.”
The Metropolitan Police was among 19 constabularies that recorded a drop with the Greater London force dealing with 4,000 fewer tool thefts than in the previous year.
Inspector Mark Connolly, from the Met’s Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “We know tool theft has a significant impact on tradespeople.
“We’re working hard across the Met to tackle it through targeted operations and prevention, such as tool marking events and intelligence-led activity, to tackle organised crime groups selling stolen goods.”
Direct Line’s Mark Summerville added: “It’s important that all instances of tool theft are reported, so police forces and law makers understand the full extent of the issue, helping them to identify offender patterns and to allocate resources to combat these crimes.”
Since falling victim Charlie has accepted a Met Police offer to have his new tools marked with SelectaDNA—a forensic marking system designed to deter theft and help recover stolen property.
And he has also taken several steps to secure his van, including the installation of Mundy alarmed
security gates and drill plates to protect against lock tampering.