Fuel thefts at British gas stations have soared nearly two-thirds this year to record levels amid rising prices, an industry body said.
The Association of Gas Traders said highway incidents, where a motorist fills up and doesn’t try to pay before leaving, have increased 61% so far this year compared to the same period in 2021 .
Gordon Balmer, the executive director of PRA, said the number of burglaries “was going through the roof” with 10 incidents a day, and predicted that retailers would lose £ 25 million if the current eviction rate continued during the next 12 months. .
Incidents of drivers who say they could not pay for the fuel they had already put in their vehicle have also increased, such as forgetting their wallet, they have also increased, reaching an annual cost to the sector of £ 16 million.
“You’re looking at almost £ 41 million in terms of cost to the fuel industry, whether it’s stolen through highways or people don’t have the means to pay,” Balmer said. “It’s a really difficult issue right now and it’s growing.”
Asked if retailers received enough police support, he replied: “With the pressure on the police over the last few years, many police forces have said,‘ It’s not a criminal offense, it’s a civilian crime, so you have to deal with it. with him, and if the actual value of the crime is less than £ 100, we will not send anyone to watch him. ” I have personally raised this with the Ministry of the Interior. “
Operators said there had been a “huge increase” in verbal abuse towards yard staff by drivers angry about the bomb prices.
Darren Briggs, CEO of Ascona Group, which owns 59 petrol stations across the UK, said: “We are receiving reports virtually every week from customers who are quite abusive about what they are seeing on the stick sign … It’s hard to explain to customers how the market works “.
Figures from the data firm Experian show that the average price of a liter of petrol in the courtyards of the United Kingdom reached a new high of 191.2 p on Tuesday.
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The average price of diesel was 199 pence per liter, a fraction of a cent below the record 199.1 pence per liter set on Saturday. This led car groups to accuse retailers of refusing to pass on the recent declines in wholesale costs.
The RAC said “there was no rhyme or any reason why average foreign prices continue to rise”, while the AA claimed that drivers “were being taken for fools by retailers”.
Briggs pointed out that there was great volatility in the market, which meant that pump prices depended largely on when retailers bought new supplies.
The Ascona group needed a profit margin of at least 9 p. per liter to cover costs such as wages and utility bills, but in the past two months he had been “lucky enough to earn £ 7 per liter,” he said.
He said all retailers had approved the 5 penny-per-liter cut in fuel tax implemented by the Treasury in March.
This month, the Competition and Markets Authority launched a “brief, focused review” of how much drivers were charged for fuel following a request from business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday told lawmakers that he would carefully consider demands for a more substantial reduction in the fuel tax.