Shaun Robinson

Sheep kept in fields away from farmsteads and grazed in remote upland areas are particularly vulnerable because often there's no one there to notice there's a crime's taking place.

Laura and Shaun Robinson farm near Penrith in Cumbria, and just under a fortnight ago they realized that they had become victims of sheep rustlers, with both tups or rams and ewes missing from one of the fields that they rent next to the busy A66.

There was around 20 tups and 45 ewes gone, Texels and Texel crosses.

Shaun had actually been working on the weekend, and then when he drove past Monday morning, he noticed the gate was open.

Well, we've been told, um, there's a few other areas, so Workington, Cockermouth, and Keswick have been hit, and it seems like they're going, like, along the A66 across the county.

Who knows what they're gonna do with them? Who knows if they're gonna sell them on, cut the tags out, cut all the markings out, sell 'em on somewhere else, totally miles and miles away, or are they dead already? Are they gonna be sold for meat?

That's Laura Robinson.

The National Sheep Association tell us they believe that sheep thefts on the scale seen in Cumbria are usually organized crime.

Sheep kept in fields away from farmsteads and grazed in remote upland areas are particularly vulnerable because there's often no one there to notice that a crime's taking place.

Laura and Shaun Robinson farm near Penrith in Cumbria, and just under a fortnight ago they realized that they had become victims of sheep rustlers with both tups or rams and ewes missing from one of the fields that they rent next to the busy A sixty-six.

There was around twenty tups and forty-five ewes gone.

Texels and Texel crosses.