A farmer who has lost £30,000 worth of sheep to rustlers says stolen livestock is being smuggled across the border.

Agricultural insurance firm NFU Mutual received a record a number of claims for livestock theft in Scotland in January.

It expects the total number of incidents to have risen last year. Official figures will be published in August.

Nearly 11,500 sheep and other livestock were stolen from Scottish farms between 2012 and 2014. This included 380 sheep taken from the Littlewood Estate in Aberdeenshire in June 2012.

Huntly farmer Roddy Scarborough said more £30,000 worth of sheep taken from him in recent years and he believes some were taken across the border to be sold or slaughtered.

Mr Scarborough said: "I've had hundreds of sheep stolen at a time and they generally come in and take a trailer load. Who stops a trailer full of livestock going down the road?

"They'll be selling them to slaughterhouses and the biggest worry is that once they go south there's no way of identifying them."

Sheep are electronically tagged using different systems in Scotland and England. Farmers can check the Scottish system themselves but must apply for access to the English database.

Mr Scarborough added: "If somebody's offering someone something at half the price the buyer's not going to quibble about it.

"It's easy for people who know what they're doing to cut the tags out and put their own tags on."

The 56-year-old also had four working border collies stolen last year, which were returned after the story became national news.