Fuel thefts and drive offs

As nation waits to see if the cost of petrol will continue to rise, there have been reports of drivers filling up with petrol then driving off without paying for it. Since the price of petrol started to increase in 2010 motorists who fill up and drive off without paying has increased by over 50%. The average price for a litre of petrol stands at £1.30 if you’re lucky, otherwise you could be the unlucky few that have no choice but to pay up to £1.40 a litre.

What are ‘drive offs’?

Drive offs is the term given to motorists who need petrol but don’t pay for it, instead they fill up and then literally drive off the court. It has cost garages around £17 million in lost revenue so far but with so many people desperate and not able to afford the high costs of petrol it seems to be getting worse. If things continue the way they are, then motorists will be forced to pay £2 a litre with drive offs becoming much rifer. 

Police have been asked to monitor garages where this has become a problem; using decoy vehicles and unmarked police cars, it has so far helped to reduce drive off offenders. As fuel theft continues to become a problem, organisations have asked garages to step up security though there is not much you can do when and if a motorist drives off. As all garages have licence plate recognition the details get passed on to the local police who will then add it to their database of offenders. When police are on routine drives, any offenders are flagged up and pulled over. However this is not a reliable method as such offenders have cloned licence plates, so an innocent driver may be blamed instead. 

The local public would like to see new methods encouraged such as forecourt attendants who you pay to fill up the tank for you. Or a similar system they have in place in America where you have to pay for fuel before you attempt to fill up. It doesn’t look like the majority of people are willing to adapt to change especially as filling up and paying for petrol has been the norm for so many years. 

Having more self service checkouts would help reduce fuel theft; all you do is insert your card, type in your pin and fill up. You then only pay for the fuel that you need as it is then deducted after you replace the petrol nozzle. As there hasn’t been much of a campaign to encourage people to do this, many motorists have the fear of trying is as it cuts the time having to walk over to the cashier and queue then pay.