Rising prices fuel petrol thefts
10:41am Wednesday 16th July 2008
A PONTYPOOL petrol station has been forced to clamp down on motorists after hundreds of drivers fled without paying.
Pontypool's crime and disorder reduction officer Andrew Cleaton highlighted the issue as a real problem' and has been working with managers at the New Inn roundabout Total garage to come up with a pre-payment system.
A spokesman for Total UK, said: "Unfortunately, a small number of our 500 service stations have suffered a high amount of drive-offs, and to combat this problem, we have been forced to introduce a pre-payment system, where customers are required to pay for their petrol before filling up.
"Security records show that particular pumps have a much higher incidence of drive-offs than others, and customers at these pumps may be asked for pre-payment of their fuel.
"The vast majority of our customers accept that we have been forced to use this policy at certain service stations, and we apologise for any offence that this policy may cause. Total uses CCTV at the site and actively pursues anyone who engages in criminal activity against it."
Total UK was unable to provide any specific statistics. However, a spokesman confirmed that there have been more than 100 drive-off incidents in the last year alone.
He said it is anticipated that retailers lose in excess of £10m each year from people driving off without paying for their fuel.
PC Cleaton said: "I have spoken to the Total UK area manager and offered some crime reduction advice. One of the things I suggested was a pay before you fill system at the high risk pumps, in order to prevent the crimes taking place in the first place.
"Drivers leaving petrol stations without paying has always been an issue but since the increase in fuel prices it's now a real problem in the area.
"However, bigger garages tend to have a higher number number of cases due to staff not being able to keep an eye on all customers."