POLICE in Powys are warning that rural crime could rise as Covid-19 travel restrictions are eased.

A quad bike was reported stolen from the Llanrhaeadr area on Monday morning, and there are concerns that with more travel allowed, criminals will be tempted to take advantage, targeting farms and rural properties for machinery and other goods.

Officers are pleading with farmers and land owners to ensure property is locked away and not left on display for 'opportunists', especially at night.

Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Inspector Jacqui Lovatt said: "We had another quad bike stolen from Llanrhaeadr which was reported to us today (Monday).

"We've had a particular issue in respect of quad bikes being stolen on our border area.

"It's eased off mainly because of lockdown, because obviously that stemmed a lot of people travelling in, because a lot of this is down to travelling criminals targeting our rural areas.

"But we have had the odd one or two and our concern is with the likelihood of regulations being lifted, we're already seeing people being able to travel, keeping local, which is going to see an increase in people travelling through the area - our concern is that we're going to see an increase in rural crime in particular, plant theft and quad bike thefts.

"A lot of the time we're trying to encourage the rural community to try and protect their property, locking hem away. Often we're seeing quads being left out on farm yards, and really creating opportunities for that opportunist."

Chief Insp Lovatt added: "We're really asking for people to report anything suspicious, be vigilant, protect their property, lock their property and make it that much more difficult for these travelling criminals to offend.

"Potentially an increase in people travelling the roads with the reduction in restrictions, people do need to be more vigilant, especially farmyards, just to make sure that farm property is secure."