The British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS) has recorded a significant reduction in forecourt crime reports during the first full weekend of the coronavirus lockdown.

The news comes as BOSS released the results of the latest Forecourt Crime Index covering the final quarter (Q4) of 2019, which reported that forecourt crime continued to decline during the second half of 2019, with the BOSS Index falling 7% during Q4 2019 to 158, compared with 170 in the previous quarter.

In response to the coronavirus crisis BOSS has been monitoring changes in drive-off incidents. During the first weekend (March 21-22) reports of drive-offs rose by 21%, but early reports for the first full weekend (March 28-29) of the coronavirus lockdown have seen the number of drive-offs fall by 31%. However, incidents where large containers are being filled and fuel is taken and not paid for are increasing.

The Q4 2019 BOSS Forecourt Crime Index is based on no means of payment (NMoP) incident reports that are made to BOSS as part of BOSS Payment Watch.  The total number of incidents reported in Q4 2019 declined 6.5%.

The average number of incidents per site also dropped to 11.2 incidents per site (12.1: Q3 2019), a fall of 7.1 %.