Rising fuel prices have spurred a “significant increase” in motorists not paying for fuel in recent weeks, the British Oil Security Syndicate has revealed.
BOSS is now warning forecourt operators to be “extra vigilant” and retain any CCTV recordings to catch potential offenders after unpaid fuel incidents rose by 215% in the first week of March compared with three months ago.
Its interim analysis also revealed the number of litres of unpaid-for fuel increased by 68% during the same period. The average number of litres per incident, however, fell from 55 litres in December to 41 litres in March, suggesting motorists who “deliberately evade” paying for fuel are “nervous about filling up completely as it might draw attention to their actions”.
“High fuel prices make not paying for fuel more attractive to criminals and we’ve seen the number of reports about unpaid fuel increase significantly in recent weeks,” said BOSS MD Claire Nichol.
“We’d advise forecourt operators to be extra vigilant during peak periods. They should also retain any CCTV recordings and ensure that information about vehicles involved in either driving away from a forecourt without paying for fuel, or a motorist claiming to have no means of payment for fuel, is accurate.
“Should the number of incidents continue to rise, we could see the BOSS Forecourt Crime Index reach the highest level since records were introduced.”
BOSS has also received reports about some motorists using large non-certified containers to draw and store fuel, with is both illegal and highly dangerous, without payment either, it said. In one instance, a small compact car was reported to have drawn 128 litres of petrol for a tank that could only hold 60 litres.
The non-profit organisation has provided warning signals for forecourt operators to look out for when a crime might occur on the forecourt.
This includes: the driver still at the wheel with passenger filling up, open doors or open boot, number plates hidden or appear altered, lights of the vehicle still switched on, vehicle parked facing away from the kiosk towards an exit or the customer trying to hide behind their own or another vehicle when filling up.
Unpaid fuel incidences fall into two categories. The first being a drive-off incident, whereby motorists drive away from a forecourt without making an attempt to pay. The second is called no means of payment, which occurs when a driver fills up with fuel, claims to have no means of payment, agrees to pay, but subsequently fails to.
The latter is the biggest challenge facing forecourt operators and accounts for two thirds of all forecourt fuel crime.
No comments yet