If you own an electric-powered fork lift - beware! There have been a spate of thefts of their valuable lead-acid batteries, carried out by criminals posing as engineers. In one case the thieves even managed to convince a company to use its own fork lift truck to help load the batteries into their van before driving off into the sunset. Oops.

The alert has come from the Fork Lift Truck Association, who have received reports of similar incidents from across the UK. It is the scrap value of the batteries (up to £500 per tonne) which is attracting the thieves. FLTA Chief Executive David Ellison warned “Thieves don’t care about the retail or rental cost of the battery – the scrap value alone is what they’re after – so any fork lift truck battery is potentially at risk. Our strong advice is to carefully check the identification and authority of any ‘engineer’ visiting your site – and to ensure batteries are kept very secure when not attended.”