Thieves tanked up

By Casey Neill
POLICE last week urged petrol stations to establish or increase periods when customers must pre-pay for petrol to combat fuel thefts.
Safer Communities Unit Inspector Jill Wood said pre-paid petrol times were working, but more service stations needed to get on board.
Statistics revealed more than 5500 petrol thefts in Victoria from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008.
The figures showed Knox had the eighth highest number of fuel thefts, 231.
Cardinia and Yarra Ranges shires ranked 25th and 26th respectively with 74 and 72.
Knox Senior Sergeant Phil Edmunds said his station introduced the Knox Petrol Theft Reduction Strategy five years ago.
“We’re quite happy with our petrol drive-off statistics,” he said.
Sen Sgt Edmunds said Knox police met regularly with service station managers.
“We actively invite proprietors to report all thefts of petrol,” he said.
He said stations in other areas may write off theft rather than alerting police.
“You need to look past the statistics,” he said.
Sen Sgt Edmunds said most service stations in Knox had introduced pre-paid petrol periods, reducing night-time thefts.
However, most thefts now occurred during the day.
“Many thieves don’t care anymore,” he said.
Sen Sgt Edmunds said customers claiming to forget their wallet or be short of cash were becoming more frequent.
They apologise, leave some form of identification and promise to return.
“But they don’t come back,” he said.
“This failure to pay is a bigger issue than the drive-offs.”
He said the trend was difficult to combat and was technically a civil debt, not a crime.
“But it does become a criminal offence if they do it more than once,” he said.
“It becomes intent to deprive.”
Sen Sgt Edmunds said police had charged several offenders with deception and theft of petrol.
“If people do it they’re silly because we will catch up with them,” he said.
Insp Wood urged motorists to secure their number plates with special screws following more than 10,000 number plate thefts in 2007/08.
Insp Wood said thieves often used stolen numberplates when stealing petrol.
“This makes it a lengthier process to catch offenders,” she said.
The screws act as a deterrent because they are difficult to remove.