This Tuesday, November 5, around forty farmers gathered in front of the Béziers court to support a farmer from Saint-Gervais-sur-Mare, tried for violence with a weapon after hitting the car of fuel thieves. The farmer, exasperated by the repeated thefts, was sentenced to a suspended fine of €1,000.
An act of desperation in the face of repetitive thefts
Last May, after yet another fuel theft on his farm, the farmer chased the thieves in a car. On a bend, he unintentionally hit the suspects' vehicle, which ended up in the ditch. Despite the evidence provided against the thieves, they filed a complaint, leading to the farmer's conviction. “He is a man at the end of his rope who has no place at the helm,” declared Jérôme Despey, president of the Hérault Chamber of Agriculture, deploring that a victim is thus being prosecuted.
An alert network for farmers who are victims of theft
Faced with the increase in theft of fuel, agricultural equipment and cultivated products, an agreement was signed between the gendarmerie and farmers to set up an alert network. In Hérault, as elsewhere in France, farms are regularly targeted, despite the costly security measures deployed by farmers to protect their property.
“I was warned thanks to the cameras”
“I have filed complaints numerous times for theft of fuel and equipment,” the farmer testified to France Bleu. Thanks to the cameras installed on his farm, he was alerted to the presence of thieves last May. When he intervened, he chased the intruders by car and alerted the police. “In a dark corner, I didn't see their car and hit them; it wasn’t intentional,” he explained.
Source: Le Midi libre
(Thank you Yann Bourguignon)
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