Forecourts in North Wales are working with North Wales’ police’s We Don’t Buy Crime team to try and reduce the number of people driving off without paying for fuel.
As part of its pledge to reduce business crime in North Wales, PCSO Lee Monk has visited fuel stations across Anglesey to deliver crime prevention packs to reduce drive-offs as well as give staff training on how to spot the signs of exploitation.
Crime prevention packs contain advice for staff as well as stickers and posters to remind customers to pay for their fuel. The stickers and posters are now being widely used at various stations.
Following on from this, two petrol stations have added these messages to the LED display screens at the station to make the reminder to pay more noticeable to anyone filling up their vehicle.
We Don’t Buy Crime team sergeant Sue Carrington said: “We’re pleased to be working closely with fuel stations across Anglesey to reduce drive-offs.
“Although it isn’t a large-scale issue, we do see incidents of local people driving off from fuel stations without paying. Many of these cases are people who have forgotten to pay, but this still requires the fuel station to report it to police and for the incident to be investigated by us, which takes a considerable amount of time and resource.
“We believe that simple reminders in prominent locations will make a big difference in preventing these cases, saving hours of work for both police and fuel station staff.
“I’m pleased to see fuel stations taking our crime prevention packs on board and would encourage any other fuel stations who would like to display our digital poster at their sites to contact us to arrange this.”
We Don’t Buy Crime is North Wales Police’s initiative to reduce acquisitive crime affecting communities, individuals and businesses.
