This article was updated on 13 May, and again on 22 May 2025, to include data submitted by several police forces after publication
Forecourt Trader has discovered that fuel worth an estimated £6.55 million has been stolen in the past five years in just over 131,000 drive-off incidents from petrol stations, with police ending investigations with no suspect being identified in up to 94% of cases, despite senior officers linking such offences to organised crime.
Filling a car with fuel and driving off from a petrol station without entering the forecourt shop to pay is not a specific offence, instead falling under ‘making off without payment’ (MOWP), a crime that carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment, and which can also be perpetrated against taxi drivers, restaurants and other businesses.
Our investigation saw a series of Freedom of Information requests sent to the UK’s 45 police forces, asking how many MOWP incidents they had recorded from 2020 to 2024, and how many of these were drive-offs.
We also asked about the value of fuel stolen, how the crimes were resolved, and which five petrol stations in each constabulary reported the most drive-offs.
Inconsistent offence recording
A total of 33 police forces supplied us with data, but constabularies take varying approaches to recording drive-offs. Some were unable to separate petrol station MOWPs from overall making-off-without-payment statistics, while others configured their systems to allow them to isolate drive-offs. Only five constabularies consistently recorded the value of fuel stolen, with those that did indicating an average of £49.90 is taken in each drive-off.
By analysing data from the 15 forces that detailed both overall MOWP offences and the number of these crimes that involved fuel theft, we were able to determine that the vast majority (76.62%) of all MOWPs relate to drive-offs, applying this percentage to MOWP data from forces that did not separate out fuel thefts.
A total of 81,639 MOWP incidents were recorded at petrol stations or involved stolen fuel from 2020-2024, with petrol and diesel worth an estimated £4.07m taken.
We estimate a further 49,568 MOWP offences comprised drive-offs over that period, adding £2.47m to the value of fuel stolen, for a total of £6.55 million.
Nationally, an estimated average of 505 drive-offs are reported each week to the constabularies responding to our requests.
Consistently poor arrest rates
Petrol station operators say that when informing police a drive-off has taken place, retailers often receive a generic SMS text message or email within hours of logging the crime. One text seen by Forecourt Trader reads: ”We have not been able to identify the suspect responsible for this crime and therefore our investigation is now complete.” Such messages are often sent despite police not visiting filling stations to review CCTV footage showing a suspect’s car and registration plate.
As the average value of fuel taken in each drive-off is around £50, well below the £200 limit under which theft is classified as a ‘summary’ crime, these incidents have less chance of being fully investigated by police, so while drive-offs are common, arrests and prosecutions are rare – though this may be remedied by the Crime and Policing Bill currently making its way through parliament.
Between 2020 and 2024 Sussex Police logged 2,892 MOWPs that had “fuel, petrol, diesel, or drive-off” recorded against them, or took place at petrol stations. With each incident involving an estimated average of fuel worth £49.90 being stolen, this is equivalent to £144,314. The vast majority (2,727) of these crimes saw “investigation complete: no suspect ID” recorded against them, equivalent to 94% of cases being closed with no perpetrator being caught. Just 37 incidents saw an offender charged or summonsed, while eight people were cautioned and four engaged in community resolution programs.
The Metrolpolitan Police recorded 15,787 MOWP offences at petrol stations across the five years in question, with fuel worth an estimated £787,787 stolen. Norfolk Police recorded 671 drive-offs, Suffolk 501, and Lancashire 1,062. Northumbria Police recorded 7,429 fuel or petrol-station MOWP incidents from 2020-24, with this force recording that the stolen fuel had a value of precisely £442,090.
Humberside Police logged 3,008 instances of making off without payment for petrol/diesel from 2020-2024 (equal to an estimated £150,102), with “investigation complete, unable to identify subject” logged against 2,489 records, equivalent to 83%. A further 200 cases saw “named suspect but evidential difficulties CPS and Police” recorded against them, while investigations by Humberside officers brought about 73 community resolutions, and saw people charged or summoned to court 115 times, equivalent to 3.8% of cases.
Similar outcomes were recorded across the police forces that shared such data with us. South Yorkshire Police logged “property Class 2 is equal to/is in Fuels” against 3,483 MOWPs (est. value: £173,805) over 2020-2024, resulting in 43 people (1.2%) being charged, and no suspect being identified in 3,181 (91%) of instances, while 75 retailers withdrew or would not provide support for police action, though officers had identified a subject.
West Yorkshire Police recorded 8,780 MOWP (est: £438,131) incidents between 2020 and 2024 being logged as either having taken place at a petrol station, or having fuel, petrol or diesel noted against officers’ crime reports. In 86.17% of cases, “Investigation complete: No suspect ID” was recorded against these incidents.
Hertfordshire Police recorded 6,749 MOWPs (est: £336,782) as taking place at petrol stations over the five years we asked about, with “No suspect identified” being recorded against 6,209 of these reports, equivalent to 92% of cases.
Leicestershire Police told us its officers recorded 4,549 ‘fuel bilking’ incidents (est. value: £227,000) from 2020-2024, with “investigation complete no suspect identified” logged against 92.8% of these.
As an example a constabulary that shared overall making off without payment offences but could not filter for fuel or filling-station incidents, Thames Valley Police recorded 16,131 MOWPs across 2020-2024. By multiplying this by the average percentage (76.62%) of MOWPs that involved fuel or filling stations (based on data from 11 forces that shared both sets of information in an easily accessible format), we estimate forecourts reported 12,359 drive-offs to Thames Valley Police over these five years.
Multiplying this by £49.90, the average value of fuel stolen in drive-offs, petrol and diesel worth an estimated £616,719 was stolen in the Thames Valley constabulary over the five years in question.
Greater Manchester Police, meanwhile, recorded 18,240 MOWPs over the five years; after adjusting this figure down by 76.62% to reflect the proportion of these offences that likely involved fuel theft, we estimate 13,975 drive-offs, worth £687,336, were reported to GMP.
Fake number plates, repeat offenders
Forecourt security firm Vars Technology installs and manages ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) based loss-prevention technology and runs a blacklist that alerts retailers when a vehicle associated with drive-offs enters a petrol station, and also helps forecourts recover money from unpaid fuel.
Data from Vars indicates that around 13% of all drive-offs involve cars fitted with cloned number plates (for example, plates bearing the registration of another car of the same make, model and colour), fake number plates, or with no registered keeper. Working with the DVLA’s database allowed Vars to determine that 5,449 vehicles with cloned plates and 902 with fake registrations, together with 3,303 vehicles with no registered keeper, were used during drive-offs in 2024 alone.
John Garnett, a director at Vars Technology, told us that “police forces are under-resourced and under-funded” and highlighted his works with police “as much as is practical, including allowing them access to our ANPR data”, though he warned of an increasing use of cloned and fake plates, and said a “deeper commitment” from law enforcement was needed to tackle drive-offs.
Forecourt Eye also offers ANPR based security for petrol stations and runs a blacklist of vehicles associated with offences. The firm highlights that in April 2025, 47% of all drive-offs were carried out by repeat offenders, while over the last 12 months 3.3% of vehicles involved in fuel theft had no registered keeper, 3% wore stolen or cloned plates, and 5.2% had fake plates. Nick Fisher, founder and CEO of Forecourt Eye, said his firm provides “crucial real-time protection against potential fuel theft”, alerting staff at subscribing sites to an average of six vehicles of concern every day.
Industry and police reactions
We approached the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners for comment, asking if it considered more action was needed to tackle drive-offs, not least given the high number of cars on fake plates used in the commission of these crimes.
The APCC agreed that retail theft such as drive-offs “can be linked to other serious organised criminality” and the organisation’s joint leads on business and retail crime, Katy Bourne and Andy Dunbobbin, added that police should not “be complacent about these crimes because they are not victimless or low-level, as is sometimes suggested”.
We put similar questions to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. A spokesperson told us: “Forces have regular interactions with commercial providers and organisations, including petrol stations, about the security of their sites and continue to work with them to make it harder for criminals to commit this type of offence.
“In some cases, there may not be enough intelligence or data for police to act on. This does not mean that a crime is closed indefinitely or that intelligence or information is ignored. Intelligence is vital in detecting organised criminality, and we would encourage anyone who suspects criminality in their community to report it to police, including theft.”
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said that while his organisation has “worked with the police, Home Office, and DVLA” to address the problem, the issue has “persisted and worsened” over the years, though he urged retailers to report all incidents and “build a relationship with their local police force”.
Top reporting forecourts
Some police forces told us which five forecourts reported the most drive-offs, while others refused to on security grounds. Cambridgeshire police, for example, said naming such sites “would reveal vulnerabilities” that could “be exploited by those intent on committing crime”. Surrey police, meanwhile, warned a “mosaic effect” could be created by “establishing patterns/trends of theft” if they shared this information.
We’ve erred on the side of caution and decided not to reveal the most frequently reporting sites, while these data points may also be skewed due to some forecourts diligently reporting drive-offs, and others not bothering.
Nonetheless, a site owned by a Top 50 Indie operator was one of the top five reporting forecourts to a northern constabulary from 2020 to 2023, though it fell out of the top five in 2024, something that correlated with the firm introducing an ANPR-based loss-prevention system.
Forecourt Trader will share further details and analysis with firms that have a legitimate interest in this area.
