We live in a region blessed with beauty and rugged isolation. But where some see beauty, criminals see bounty, and according to the latest figures, the cost of rural crime in Wales rose 18 per cent over the past year.

According to NFU Mutual, rural crime across the UK cost an estimated £44.1 million in 2024, down from £52.8 million the previous year.

Good news. Just not in Wales. It’s the only nation to see an increase.

Quad bikes remained top targets for thieves. Given the distinct characteristics of farmland, especially in upland areas, these vehicles are essential for farmers to tend their herds and fields.

Make no mistake, here in west Wales, we are most fortunate to have a small team of rural crime officers with Dyfed-Powys Police who are dedicated to catching these miscreants. They deserve our fullest praise and support.

The trouble is those officers need more support from the force. Given the rural makeup of our topography, these over-stretched officers need more - more support, more officers, more public help.

When it comes to criminals who descend on rural households and farms, pillaging equipment or stealing livestock, they are literally taking away livelihoods and undermining the hard-working communities that toil the land and herds with little reward and less government support.

Those who appear before our local magistrates charged with offences against our farming community must face the stiffest sentences. A slap on the wrist isn’t appropriate when livelihoods and livestock are put at risk.

There has also been an anecdotal increase in the number of livestock theft cases in recent months across west Wales. While we would certainly not advocate a return to hanging as in the case of cattle rustlers in the American Wild West in days of yore, it seems as if criminals enterprises look at our fields and see an opportunity for a quick quid. That thinking needs to be quickly reversed, and stiffer sentences for such livestock theft need to be the order of the day.

It’s hard enough for our rural crime officers to do their job. But support them with far tougher court penalties.