DECOY POLICE CARS TO BEAT PETROL THIEVES AS PUMP PRICE SOARS
Patrol cars are being parked at petrol station forecourts across the UK to deter thieves
Friday March 4,2011
By Dana Gloger, Consumer Affairs Editor
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PETROL stations are being given 24-hour police protection as the number of fuel thefts soars.
Patrol cars are being parked at forecourts across the UK to make thieves think that officers are on hand.
Police say the vehicles have already helped to reduce the number of motorists filling up and then driving off without paying as prices hit record levels.
Inspector Neil Ireland, of Suffolk Police said: “Some petrol stations seem to have particularly high numbers of drive-offs, so we decided to trial this idea in our area.
“We are called in to investigate when people drive away without paying for petrol and it can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money.
“The decoy cars are working well and we have certainly seen a reduction in the number of reports.”
As well as people driving off without paying, there has also been a rise in the number of motorists filling up and then claiming they cannot pay.
Many retailers have joined a debt recovery scheme to reclaim the unpaid money. Other petrol stations have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds increasing forecourt security, with improved CCTV cameras and alarms, and padlocks on underground fuel tanks.
Inspector Ireland added: “People need to pay for their petrol. We have even heard of people filling up extra tanks in the boots of their cars.”
As reported in the Daily Express on Wednesday, prices reached their highest level ever this week, with petrol at 130.68p per litre and diesel at 136.14p – just two pence off £6 a gallon.The AA estimates that, in total, motorists are spending almost £10million more a day on petrol than this time a year ago. Brendan McLoughlin, founder of PetrolPrices.com, said: “Fuel sales are going down as people can’t afford to pay the high petrol prices and there is five per cent less fuel being sold now compared with two years ago.”
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Over the past year petrol prices have risen by 10 per cent but in the last two months alone they have gone up by 6p a litre.
With concerns escalating about unrest in Libya spreading to other countries, including Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, experts warned that prices will go higher still.
Faith Birol, chief economist of the Energy Agency, said: “The age of cheap oil is over.” There was some respite yesterday, however, as the price of crude oil fell at one point by $3 a barrel to $113.09.
Motoring organisations are calling for the planned April 1 fuel duty increase of 1p per litre plus inflation to be scrapped. Of every pound spent on fuel, 67p already goes on duty and VAT.
Scottish MPs yesterday called on Chancellor George Osborne to drop the proposed increase. Mr Osborne has agreed to consider the matter but has yet to make a final decision.
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http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/232488/Decoy-police-cars-to-beat-petrol-thieves-as-pump-price-soarsDecoy-police-cars-to-beat-petrol-thieves-as-pump-price-soars#ixzz1FavUXDYO
