Fuel thieves made off with more than £14m worth of petrol and diesel from UK forecourts in the last financial year, data released by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency indicates.
The organisation says just under 290,000 requests were made for vehicle-keeper details linked to alleged fuel-theft incidents in 2025/26, which, when multiplied by the £49.90 average value of a drive-offs shared with Forecourt Trader by police forces last year, means fuel retailers lost an estimated £14.46m worth of petrol and diesel over the 12-month period.
The DVLA data comes via the Daily Star, which made a Freedom of Information request to the body. The Swansea-based organisation told the paper it received just under 290,000 fuel-theft-related requests for vehicle-keeper details 2025/26, up from 142,000 in 2022/23.
That steep increase could be linked to rising drive-off rates, but a more significant factor is likely to be that in June 2025 the DVLA began to allow fuel retailers and forecourt-security firms to request driver details electronically, rather than relying on the paper applications the sector used to have to make.
The agreement subsequently saw outfits including BOSS, Vars and newcomer NexPlate gain security clearance to make vehicle-keeper requests electronically.
A DVLA spokesperson told the Daily Star: “Fuel theft is a criminal offence. DVLA has worked with the police and the Home Office to make it easier to share vehicle keeper information with fuel retailers to use as a first point of contact when following up cases of alleged fuel theft.”
