Work by Humberside Police’s Road Crimes Team (RCT) resulted in a prolific fuel thief being sentenced to 22 weeks in prison and being disqualified from driving for two years.
The RCT hunts out criminality on the Humberside region’s roads, employing an intelligence-led approach to tackle drug dealers, vehicle thieves and any other type of crime on the roads.
During one recent 12-hour shift, RCT officers were made aware of a vehicle that had been visiting a number of forecourts, filling up and making off without payment. It had been doing this on a regular basis in Hull, the East Riding and York.
Sgt Matt Hemingway scoured CCTV in areas surrounding the targeted petrol stations and noticed the vehicle stopped before and after stealing the petrol to change its number plates.
The cloned vehicle was sighted during the shift and was believed to have made off without payment again. It was spotted heading west on the A63 and brought to a stop by police near Goole. A search found the plates used in the fuel thefts in the boot. A check of the VIN also revealed that the vehicle was using cloned plates to hide its identity. Not only was the car driving on cloned plates, but it also swapped its plates to commit crime – making it a double clone. The driver and passenger were both arrested on suspicion of theft and going equipped to steal.
They were escorted to Clough Road custody facility in Hull. On the way there, the police rang the petrol stations to get CCTV to use as evidence. CCTV from one of the petrol stations arrived and showed a man who looked very similar to the arrested driver.
The team headed out to gather further evidence for the making off without payment crimes.
The arrests for the fuel thefts resulted in the driver being charged with multiple counts of making off without payments. He was also charged with four counts of disqualified driving and four counts of driving without insurance. The passenger was released without any further action.
“I’m really pleased with that,” said Sgt Hemingway. “It may not seem like a big crime to some, but we look out for series of offences and try to stop them before they become other things.”
