Tool theft 'epidemic' with five cases reported a day in Scotland
One in three workers said they have had equipment stolen from their vans in the last 12 months.
Thieves are targeting tradespeople across Scotland, with police data revealing more than 30 incidents involving tool theft every week over a 12-month period.
While criminals target the sector across the UK at an alarming rate, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from NFU Mutual shows Police Scotland recorded 1,765 reports of tool theft from December 2024 to December 2025 at an estimated value of £1.8million.
A survey from the commercial insurer also showed that more than half of tradespeople in Scotland who were questioned said they were victims of tool theft in the last 12 months – with 43 per cent of those being repeat victims in the same timeframe.
Across the UK, NFU Mutual's survey showed thieves target vehicles to steal tools, with one in three workers having equipment stolen from their vans in the last 12 months. More than three-quarters of tradespeople surveyed said they leave their equipment and tools in vans overnight - making them a continued target.
The research also revealed that just shy of two-thirds of tradespeople across the UK had suffered from theft of any kind in the last 12 months, with theft from a site (36 per cent) most common, and equipment stolen from vehicles next on the list (32 per cent). Rounding off the top four were theft of a vehicle (12 per cent) and theft from business premises (11 per cent).
Zoe Knight, at NFU Mutual, said: “Tool theft is an epidemic that continues to blight the industry and cause major issues and distress to hard-working tradespeople up and down the country.
“With one in every three tradespeople having tools stolen from their vans in the last 12 months, it shows how brazen thieves are. This is not just a storage place for workers – but is also their mode of transport to get to and from jobs which then, in a lot of cases, will have to be cancelled or pushed back due to physical damage done by criminals and repairs needed.
“Tradespeople rely on their tools and vehicles for their job, so it is vital they have the protection and security in place. Tougher laws on tool theft would help deter thieves and tackle this growing issue.”
The Theft of Tools of Trade (Sentencing) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill due to have its second reading in the House of Commons later this year, seeks to raise the ‘harm category’ when sentencing tools of trade theft.
Lee Wilcox, co-founder of On The Tools, an online community for tradespeople across the UK, said the organisation supports the introduction of the Bill.
He said: “On The Tools has been monitoring tool theft for years and it is deeply concerning that the situation has not improved.
“In our 2022 white paper, we found that 68 per cent of tradespeople who had experienced tool theft worried about it every single day. Through our anti-suicide initiative, Project 7000: The Lost City, we also know that the UK has lost around 7,000 construction workers to suicide in the last decade: the equivalent of 14 tradespeople every week.“When tool theft is piling daily anxiety on top of an already critical mental health crisis in construction, it is clear that meaningful action is urgently overdue.”
While vehicles appear a common target for thieves, workers’ sites were actually ransacked more often in the last 12 months, NFU Mutual’s data shows.
Last year, insurance company reported that the total cost of rural crime across the UK fell by 16.5 per cent last year.
In its 2025 Rural Crime Report, NFU Mutual revealed that rural crime cost the UK an estimated £44.1 million in 2024, down from £52.8m in 2023.
The total claims cost for agricultural vehicle thefts reported fell by 35 per cent to an estimated £7m in 2025, with GPS units experiencing the largest cost decline, down 71 per cent to £1.2m following their spike in 2023.
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