Tom Dant believes that not everyone in the area got the message about him making Ulceby Cross Filling Station a 24-hour operation last October, as a gang of five ram-raided its Spar shop in the early hours of Saturday morning (January 11), presumably expecting the premises to be closed.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the incident at the site in Alford, Lincolnshire, but a young saleswoman was shaken after being grabbed and ordered to fetch the cash. After explaining that she had no access to the money, which is kept in a Glory safe, she was told to fill several carrier bags with cigarettes and vapes. Her colleague was working in the store room at the time.
Within two minutes 20 seconds of arriving, the group had made off with their £300 to £400 haul, after unsuccessfully trying to break into the automatic cash machine. But during that time they managed to cause around £20,000 of damage to the site, which is undergoing a £1.5 million re-development that had been due to complete by March.
The sales assistant, who took her next shift off and has been offered counselling through Grocery Aid, hit the panic button as soon as she was alone. And with the site being fitted with Vars automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology she was able to give police the number plates of the van and car involved. Both vehicles were found to have false number plates and were stolen, but the police were able to stop one of the vehicles within half an hour of the incident, and recover the stolen stock, says Dant.
Dant says he thinks that the attackers resorted to ram-raiding the building because they thought it was closed. “I expect they were surprised when they could just enter through the doors like a customer,” he says. Dant, who had to leave for a pre-arranged holiday the next day after the attack, describes it as a “kick in the teeth”.
The automatic doors, only recently fitted, and a freezer with £600-worth of food in it were destroyed, and the brickwork to a new conservatory eating area now needs to be re-done.
However, he says he was not altogether surprised. This site, one of three owned by Gill Marsh Forecourts, has history.
On the busy A16 to Skegness which is 20 minutes away, in a rural location with just one house nearby, it is has been a regular target for criminals, with 20 break-ins in the past 15 years. Dant believed that by switching to 24-hour operation it would lessen its chances of being hit. Ironically, he has only just been able to reinstate stock loss cover with an insurance company, but that has come at the cost of a £30,000 excess.
Officers reassured Dant that he had done pretty much all he could to protect his staff, with a policy of having at least two employees on duty at any time, CCTV, and ANPR technology. But he is now looking at stepping up security with a system in which staff, wearing headsets to communicate with one another, will let customers into the shop with a buzzer system. There will also be bollards added outside, which were in the original plans for the redeveloped site but had not yet been included.
Lincolnshire Police, who were called just after 3.20am, have arrested a man in connection with this incident. He has been released on bail. The police are asking the public for dashcam footage to help with their investigation.
Apart from this incident, the development of Ulceby Cross Filling Station has been a success, with takings up 50% since moving the shop to a larger premises in March last year.
Food to go, which accounts for 35% of this store’s turnover, is a major part of the plans for the Total forecourt. The shop is now in a recently purchased former agricultural workshop next door and at 3,000sq ft is five times the size of the original outlet, with 40 seats.
Meanwhile, the former shop has been knocked down to increase parking space, and to include electric vehicle charging, with two chargepoints being purchased direct by the business.
The food to go area has been branded Tom’s Kitchen, with a new offer of carvery and jacket potatoes added to the mix. Shortly, Dant will introduce a digital ordering screen from Hendersons, to reduce queue times and make bespoke food ordering easier.
And early next year Dant plans to introduce churros and pizza takeaways, delivered by Just Eat.
