Just five petrol stations played host to 17.91% of all drive-offs reported to police in the capital in 2023. With 523 filling stations in London, on average five forecourts should be responsible for reporting just 1% of fuel thefts.
Data from London’s Metropolitan Police shared via a Freedom of Information request shows 15,787 making off without payment offences were recorded at petrol stations in the capital from 2020 to 2024, with 1,999 of those reported by just five individual filling stations, equivalent to 12.66% of all drive-offs in the capital over those five years.
The Met did not share the precise names and addresses for these drive-off hot spots but it did provide postcodes, with map data showing each of these postcodes contains only one filling station.
Security concerns prevent us from naming these garages, but we can reveal they are located in Enfield, Ealing, Hayes, Thamesmead, and Camden.
| Filling station location | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Grand total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Enfield |
149 |
161 |
141 |
119 |
30 |
600 |
|
Ealing |
64 |
62 |
137 |
171 |
8 |
442 |
|
Hayes |
54 |
50 |
137 |
108 |
17 |
366 |
|
Thamesmead |
69 |
42 |
90 |
81 |
15 |
297 |
|
Camden |
13 |
41 |
115 |
111 |
14 |
294 |
|
Drive-offs from five garages |
349 |
356 |
620 |
590 |
84 |
1999 |
|
All London drive-offs |
3,646 |
3,433 |
4,159 |
3,294 |
1,255 |
15,787 |
|
Proportion of London drive-offs from 5 sites |
9.57% |
10.37% |
14.91% |
17.91% |
6.69% |
12.66% |
Fuel-theft rates typically increase when petrol and diesel prices are high, which may explain the surge in drive-offs reported in 2022 and 2023 by these forecourts. The Ealing site saw a 167% increase in drive offs from 2020 to 2023, when it was reporting 14 a month on average. The Camden forecourt experienced shocking 785% rise from 2020 to 2022.
Trends such as these may have prompted the businesses’ owners to introduce enhanced security measures such as ANPR-based cameras and vehicle blacklists, as 2024 saw a 69.82% reduction in the overall number of reported drive-offs compared to 2022. The Ealing site cut the number of drive-offs it reported from 171 in 2023, to just eight the following year. The Hayes and Camden sites experienced similar drops.
