Significant sentence

Two men who stole over £200,000 worth of high value agricultural GPS units have been jailed

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Two men have been sentenced (on Thursday 6th November) at Preston Crown Court following the thefts of multiple high value agricultural GPS units, totalling over £200,000, from across the North of England between July and August 2024.

Aidas Cinga, 27 and Damantas Skeltys, 28, both of no fixed address, were each sentenced to 3 years and 4 months for conspiracy to steal tractor GPS units and going equipped for theft.

Cinga and Skeltys stole GPS units from tractors on farms within the areas of Great Altcar, West Lancashire, Quernmore, Lancaster, and Heaton-with-Oxcliffe, Morecambe during a two month period.

In the early hours of Thursday 15th August 2024 at around 2:45am officers stopped a silver Citroen Grand Picasso on the M61 heading southbound in the Chorley area.

On board the vehicle was the driver, Skeltys, and the front seat passenger, Cinga.

The two men and the vehicle were searched for items related to theft. Within the vehicle officers found two pairs of wellington boots, bags of black clothing including snoods, gloves, and a shoulder style bum bag containing tools such as screwdrivers, cutting pliers and socket attachments.

Following this search, both men were arrested on suspicion of going equipped for theft. They were charged and remanded to appear at Preston Magistrates Court the following day. At court, Police were granted an extension to their detention so that further offences could be investigated, this resulted in further charges of conspiracy to steal tractor GPS units.

This was a multi force operation involving officers from Lancashire, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Humberside, and the National Rural Crime Unit. The two men are known to numerous different forces across the country including Lancashire, Cheshire, Northumbria, Yorkshire and North Wales for offences of a similar nature.