White van man has been forced to abandon his trusty Transit and resort to transporting equipment in his car due to rampant tool theft.
Nearly two in five British tradesfolk – 36 per cent – now ferry tools in their car boots because they believe non-work vehicles won’t attract as much attention from thieves.
A further quarter are planning to ditch their Sprinter or Vivaro in favour of the family car to foil crooks as new data shows tool theft is soaring.
Incidents of the crime jumped by 13 per cent last year – with up to 100 cases reported to police per day – while autumn was a peak period for thieves as dark evenings descended earlier, said Direct Line business insurance.
Almost half of all reported tool thefts (49 per cent) were from vans.
The insurer, which surveyed more than 500 grafters, said: ‘Tradespeople are changing their behaviour to try to reduce the risk they face.’
It added: ‘Over a third of tradespeople said they had resorted to sometimes transporting their tools in the boot of their car – rather than in their van – to make it less obvious that they are carrying valuable equipment.
‘A further 23 per cent say that they are thinking of doing so, while 16 per cent say they would like to but have too many tools to fit in their car.’
Nearly two in five British tradesfolk – 36 per cent – now ferry tools in their car boots because they believe non-work vehicles won’t attract as much attention from thieves
In February, hundrends of tradespeople carried out a slow drive demonstration outside Parliament to call for harsher penalties for tool theft
Around two in five remove tools from vans overnight and always keep their vehicles locked, even if leaving them briefly.
Three in ten keep their vans at a lock-up or secure location, the same number mark or engrave tools, while a quarter have added extra alarms, locks or drill plates to their vehicles.
Some 24 per cent use CCTV, a fifth only transport tools they need that day and more than one in ten have fitted trackers or lug their tools around site.
Direct Line’s Mark Summerville said: ‘As the dark nights are upon us, the risks faced by hardworking tradespeople increase significantly.’
Earlier this year, footage captured the moment brazen thieves rummaged through a carpenter’s van – parked on a driveway as he worked away inside a house.
The workman, Paul Duffy, spotted the two robbers rifling through his belongings, then ran out to confront them, managing to fend them off with a plank of wood before they sped away in a car in February.
The thugs managed to flee with a £300 drill – but he could have lost thousands had he not caught them in the act and intervened.
In another shocking video, plumber Matthew O’Shea’s van was robbed in broad daylight by five masked men who threatened him with his own drill in front of his grandson and daughter.
The workman, Paul Duffy, spotted the two robbers rifling through his belongings, then ran out to confront them, managing to fend them off with a plank of wood before they sped away in a car in February
The 46-year-old, of Coalville, Leicestershire, said he was robbed of his livelihood when they stole £2,500 worth of tools and caused £1,500 worth of damage to his van.
But these clips are only a small example of the rise in van tool theft.
Tool theft went up by five per cent from 2022 to 2023, with 44,514 incidents reported to police in 2023 – equal to one every 12 minutes.
It is having a nightmare effect on their ability to earn a living, with tradespeople losing an estimated £82million worth of jobs in 2023 due to tool theft.
In February, hundreds of tradespeople carried out a slow drive demonstration outside Parliament to call for harsher penalties.
Drivers of vans covered with slogans including ‘every tool stolen is a job lost’ and ‘hands off our van’ tooted horns as they drove through Parliament Square.
Protest organiser Shoaib Awan, a gas engineer who set up Trades United after £8,500 worth of tools were stolen from him, said he struggles to sleep at night for fear of his van being broken into.
Plumber Matthew O’Shea’s van was robbed in broad daylight by five masked men who threatened him with his own drill in front of his grandson and daughter.
The founder of rally organisers Trades United, Shoaib Awan, said tool theft was a ‘plague that cripples businesses – the loss of work, the loss of earnings’
He bought a new van after the incident and then the side doors were broken in a second break-in.
He said: ‘We want stricter laws against breaking into a tradesperson’s van.
‘These are our offices. We work from them. It’s no longer acceptable. They need to understand the implications – mentally and financially – it has on us.
‘The vans get broken into – we’re out of work because we’ve lost our tools. We’ve lost our vans.’
Carpenter and father-of-three Stephen Baker considered suicide after thieves stole £12,000 worth of tools from his van in February 2023.
The SB Multitrade owner, of Hertfordshire, said: ‘It was such a violation. I started to panic about not being able to do my work.
‘It really destroyed my mental health. I’d grafted and grafted and it was all gone in a moment.
‘For self-employed people there’s no paid time off – not for holidays or accidents.
‘When they take your tools you can’t work. I couldn’t buy more. I couldn’t do the jobs I had or look for any more jobs.
‘Everything I had worked for for 13 years was gone in five minutes and I felt desolate with no way forward.’
Carpenter and father-of-three Stephen Baker (pictured) considered suicide after thieves stole £12,000 worth of tools from his van in February 2023
CCTV footage shows a thief looking at the lock on Mr Baker’s hire van using the light on his phone torch
Todd Glister, a plumbing and heating engineer who makes social media and radio content about his work, told MailOnline that experiencing mental health difficulties after tool theft is very common.
Mr Glister said: ‘You’ve got someone under immense pressure at work, financially they’re struggling, some people have just started out their businesses on their own.
‘Then they get their van doors completely ruined so their van’s basically a write-off.
‘So, they have to deal with that through the insurance so they know they’re going to get stung next year when they renew their insurance.
‘Then all of their tools [are] completely [gone] and they’re having a bad day.
‘You can see how it’s quite easy for some people to just say, ‘I’ve had enough’.
‘And I’ve had people say that they’re suicidal to me in my DMs and stuff in the past.
‘And it’s gut-wrenching, it really is. And you just feel a bit helpless.’
Construction workers are particularly at risk. They are four times more likely to die by suicide than the national average, according to industry website On The Tools.
Of the UK’s 2.1million construction workers, 73 per cent have been affected by mental illness – making the sector one of the deadliest for mental health problems in the country.
In around the last 10 years, 7,000 working in the industry have taken their lives.
Almost half (46 per cent) of tradespeople who were stolen from last year then became repeat victims within 12 months, according to figures from insurance company NFU Mutual.
A whopping seven in ten tradespeople have been stolen from in the last year.
Chief of industry website On The Tools Lee Wilcox said there is only one conclusion to be drawn from this: ‘Tool theft is a crisis that affects not only tradespeople’s livelihoods but also their mental health.
‘It’s an epidemic we can no longer ignore.’
