No means of payment and drive-off incidents increased by 23% over March and April compared to the previous two months, new figures have revealed.
Some 432,409 litres of fuel were taken last month and the month before in 11,170 incidents across 500 sites sampled by security-tech firm Forecourt Eye.
That’s up almost a quarter on the 336,848 litres taken during 9,089 incidents in January and February, before the Iranian conflict sent prices spiralling – with rising pole-sign numbers historically bringing increased no-means-of-payment and drive-off incidents.
Forecourt Eye says fuel worth £764,098 was taken in March and April, up from £495,083 in January and February – with that increase reflecting both rising retail prices, the increase in incidents, and more fuel being drawn in each case, up from 50l to 57l for the average NMOP.
Extrapolating the 500 sampled sites to the UK’s 8,300 petrol stations indicates that every month, the sector is losing 3.59m litres of fuel worth £6.3m to drive-offs and NMOP.
Michelle Henchoz, managing director of Forecourt Eye, comments: “Fuel theft and declarations of no means of payment incidents are not levelling off, they grew again from March to April.
“The no-means-of-payment figures in particular tell us that more people are taking more fuel using this mechanism, and fewer of them are paying afterwards.
“This is a pattern we need to take seriously as an industry because it suggests there may be a deliberate exploitation of the civil/criminal threshold, not simply financial distress.”
She adds: “When it comes to the volume of fuel being taken, a typical UK forecourt is now losing around 100 litres of fuel every week to drive-off and No Means of Payment incidents, which is up from around 80 litres before the Iran conflict began.”
