![The cattle are described as shorthorn cattle. Picture supplied by QPS. The cattle are described as shorthorn cattle. Picture supplied by QPS.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/UdNE97Se3RqCx9C2EmYtgx/51111243-7ad4-4c80-9944-c54aa799c6c4.jpg/r0_0_528_339_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Queensland police have started a fraud investigation after the alleged theft of cattle from a Gulf of Carpentaria property last year.
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Officers from the Cloncurry Rural and Stock Crime Squad said the offending occurred north of Doomadgee, between September and November 2023.
Investigators believe offenders have attempted to legitimise the stolen cattle by branding them as their own.
The cattle are described as shorthorn cattle (example of the breed is pictured.
Police are appealing for anyone who has information regarding this matter to contact their nearest police station.
It comes after Western Australia police charged three men with allegedly stealing 306 cattle from a West Kimberley station and transporting them across to the Northern Territory and eventually selling them for more than $250,000 earlier this month.
Some of the stolen cattle had become part of the live cattle export trade, police allege.
Police claim the cattle theft involved mustering helicopters, portable cattle yards and bull catching buggies.
They also allege earth moving machinery was used to grade a road in the outback to allow the cattle to be moved from the 200,000 hectare Mount Pierre Pastoral Aboriginal Corporation station to an adjacent station, yarded and then trucked east to the NT.
Two of the men are due to appear the Fitzroy Crossing Magistrates' Court this week and the NT man is due to appear in July.