|
Petrol stations in the West Midlands are losing as much
as £1,000 a month because of the number of drivers stealing fuel, it
emerged today.
More motorists than ever are making off without payment,
known as “bilking”, as prices continue to soar to new records every
day. Some crooks have also been confusing staff by going into garage
shops and buying an item such as sweets before asking the attendant to
switch on a pump to allow them to fill up. They have then been fleeing service stations.
Other motorists are leaving their details claiming they do not have enough cash on them to pay, only to fail to come back.
Kieran Wallia, manager of the Blakenhall Service Station
on Dudley Road, Wolverhampton, said the number of drive-offs had soared
from one a month last year to two a week.
He said: “We have had two cars drive off this week
and two last week. It’s definitely become worse the last few months
since the prices went as high as they have.”
The service station charges 114.9p a litre for unleaded and 129.9p for diesel.
Shailesh Parekh, who runs Texaco filling on Wolverhampton’s Stafford
Road where diesel had today risen again to £134.9 a litre and unleaded
was £116.9, said the number of people confessing they do not have the
money to pay for their fuel has also shot up.
Ebrahim Bhattay, from Mibson’s service station on
Birmingham Road, West Bromwich, said people drove off without paying
“once or twice a month”.
But Mr Bhattay said he was aware of one garage in the area which was losing £1,000 a month to drive-offs.
Police in Staffordshire have seen incidents of driving
off from service stations without paying nearly double in the last three
months. During March, April and May of last year 120 offences were
reported. During the same period this year the figure rose to 195.
PetrolWorld 020608
|
