Interview: George Dean

Can you give me a quick update on what’s happened with the wider tool theft issue since we last spoke?

Compared to what we used to see, it’s actually improved a lot. The numbers have definitely gone down compared to a couple of years ago, and it still happens, but it’s not as bad as what it used to be. Raids on car boot sales have gone up, so I think the people that were selling them there aren’t doing that as much now. A lot of the boot sales have completely stopped selling power tools. I’ve been to quite a few now, and we definitely don’t see it quite as much now, although there has definitely been a shift to them selling online now. 

I remember before, you essentially identified car boot sales as a big part of the problem here because they’re essentially unregulated…

Yeah, and now a lot of them have brought in rules that say you can’t sell tools there. Since then, things have calmed down quite a lot, so it’s been really good to see that. The police have also been to a few cash converters as well, because that’s where a few of the stolen tools are also ending up. The topic’s got so hot, and it’s been discussed all over the TV and the media, the word’s got out so they’ve gone underground a bit.

Do you think that the tool thieves that were so prominent last time we spoke are essentially too worried to carry on now?

I think it’s more the fact that they are getting caught, and they know they’ve not got anywhere to offload it anymore, especially with car boot sales clamping down on that behaviour. If they have to sell it online, it’s much easier for the police to trace, so they’re not really going down that route. Most of the car boot sales have notices up now saying that you can’t sell tools there, and after the police have helped do massive raids on some of them, it’s sent a message to the others that it’s not worth it any more. And not only power tools, but retail theft’s part of it as well – we used to see things like olive oil and stolen medicine sold there too, but now people are more aware of it, the boot sales simply don’t want to be associated with it.

Are you surprised by how much progress you’ve been able to make over the last few years?

I’m really glad to see things have improved and that people are taking it seriously. People are more educated towards getting proper security on their vans, which helps. We’re talking now about all different types of locks and how to mark your tools. Thames Valley Police have funded thousands of tool marking kits and they’re working with tradespeople to get their tools marked. In a way, it’s kind of gone on autopilot now, and the momentum is kind of sustaining itself on its own without me needing to shout about it now, which I didn’t ever really think would happen. 

Even though you admit we’re never going to be able to stop tool theft entirely, it’s fantastic to hear that the work you’ve done to raise awareness for this has actually managed to make an improvement.

Absolutely, and to be honest, it’s never going to stop. But we were never trying to do that. Theft will always happen – the people that do this kind of thing will just move on to something else, like stealing catalytic converters from cars. But as soon as something gets too hot for them, they’ll drop it. 

You made a name for yourself, and essentially the issue at large, with the two major Westminster tool theft rallies you organised, but can you tell me a bit more about your latest event?

We had another rally at the start of June, but the scale of that one was a lot smaller than our Westminster protests, because it was only held at the Magistrate’s Court. I didn’t want to disturb people too much, so we coincided it to happen at the same time that some tool thieves we caught at the boot sales had their hearings. It’s nice thing to get all the vans outside, so the magistrates can see the real impact on people, because we want there to be more of an impact than just handing these criminals a fine. This doesn’t stop if the courts hand out small £50 fines to these people every time…

I know there was some legislation about tool theft added to The Sentencing Bill back in September. Do you think that will that go far enough to help?

I don’t think so. At the end of the day, they’re talking more about more industrial equipment, and that’s not your day-to-day tool theft. For instance, the value’s got to be above a certain value before the courts will even consider it. To be honest, that doesn’t work, and I said from the start that it was absolutely useless to go down that route. For a self-employed person like myself, it doesn’t really help.

What’s something you’ve learnt about these tool theft gangs that you don’t think the general public knows about?

I took part in a big raid in Ilford recently, and when the police broke into the warehouse where all of these stolen tools were being kept. We found tools that were stolen as far back as 2018, and all they were doing was selling them on eBay from multiple accounts. It was really eye opening to see how big of an operation these guys were running. It’s been going on for so long, and that was just one site, can you imagine how many of these places there are across the whole country?

When you’ve spoken to the criminals actually stealing and re-selling tools, do they seem like they feel guilty about it at all?

They just don’t really care, I think because no-one’s ever really picked up on them on a large scale before. It’s just about making quick money, cash in hand. And of course, it’s big money. Now they know, because they’re on social media – you’ve got to remember the thieves are watching us as well. So you hope that common sense tells them to stop while they still can. 

Now that tool theft numbers are down, what’s the next big challenge?

The thing is, frustratingly, we’ve tried to return tools to people, and we’ve spent weeks trying to do that. What’s annoying for the police is they can’t really do anything about it… they don’t have the staff to go through every single tool and screwdriver so the tools end up just sitting in a compound and it can take months to sort out. They do try and return them, especially if they’ve been marked and they’re identifiable, they’ll always get them returned then, which is why we always talk about how important tool marking is.

So, it sounds like the police are taking it more seriously now, too?

Yeah, they are. At the start, we were mostly trying to convince the police of the scale of this problem. But now, they message me inviting me to go on raids with them, which has honestly never happened before. They’ve also been amazing about our raid this month; they said they welcome it and they support it, because they know how hard I’ve worked on this cause. In fact, they’ve worked really closely with our media team, and when we’ve done protests in the past, they’ve always been there to keep the peace and they’ve been really respectful of us as well, so I’m glad we’re working together on this, but it’s taken me three years to get to this point.

What’s the long-term plan for the fight against tool theft?

Next will be to continue with the tool marking message, and working to make people more aware of tool theft. It’s about making sure we keep the message going about protecting yourselves, your vans, and marking your tools. At the same time, we’re still going to be looking at these thieves and where they’re selling tools online, and working with the police on that. We’re also working with tool manufacturers about how to bring in new systems to register tools. We’re also working with hotels like Premier Inn to implement secure parking for tradespeople, like gated and locked areas to protect vans. In fact they’re already trialling that in one of their hotels right now, because tool theft is happening a lot in that setting. I’m really happy about that, but like I said, we’ll never be able to stop tool theft entirely, so it’s all about getting the message out now.