A complaint has been lodged with the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner after the force refused to investigate a drive-off that took place at a Pricewatch forecourt.
Staff contacted police after a motorist filled a black BMW with £99 worth of fuel and drove off without paying or entering the shop at Selmeston Service Station on the A27 between Beddingham and Polegate. During the call, Sussex Police said that the issue was a civil matter and would therefore not be investigated.
Driving off without paying for fuel is classified as ‘making off without payment’, a criminal offence under the 1978 Theft Act. Failing to pay for fuel is only considered a civil matter if an individual enters the forecourt shop and doesn’t declare they have drawn petrol or diesel, something that did not take place in this incident.
Despite this, the police call handler was insistent that the matter was a civil one.
Pricewatch’s general manager, Tom Buckley, has raised a formal complaint over this incident, not just because of the lack of investigation, but due to the fact he believes police did not interpret the law correctly.
“I’m not expecting CID to go out and start looking for the person”, Buckley told Forecourt Trader, “but what’s really frustrating is to be told this is a civil matter when it’s clearly a criminal one.”
Taking the volume of fuel dispensed at the Selmeston forecourt and retail margins into account, Buckely said 10% of all petrol and diesel sold at the site today would go towards making up the £99 theft.
“Drive-offs have well-documented links to other criminal activities”, Buckley said. “We are a small independent retailer, and losses of this nature have to be recovered through increased prices. This not only impacts the business directly, but also places additional financial pressure on the local community.”
Buckely expressed general frustration with how fuel theft was treated by authorities. “If the police say they won’t investigate, what hope do we have? The criminals know they can get away with it.”
Even if he follows Sussex’s advice over this incident and uses a third-party debt-recovery agency to pursue the loss as a civil one, Buckley doesn’t hold out much hope that a resolution would be found. “If you’re the type of person to fill their car up with fuel in the middle of the day and drive off without paying, how worried are you going to be about debt recovery, or a possible County Court Judgement?”
He added that while many retailers are reluctant to report fuel theft due to the time it takes to do so, operators should nonetheless persevere with logging every case. “The message has got to get out there that every incident has to be reported. If every drive-off is logged, police are more likely to feel compelled to take action.”
Sussex Police told Forecourt Trader: ”We can confirm that we have received a formal complaint in relation to this matter, which is currently being reviewed. We are unable to comment further while this process is ongoing.”
