High cost of 'fill and run' crimes revealed
Five motorists a day drive away from Northamptonshire petrol stations without paying for their fuel, police figures have revealed.
Yesterday the Chronicle & Echo reported on a petrol station manager in Northampton who has taken to naming and shaming drivers who fill up and flee without paying.
Jim Keary, manager of the W Grose garage in Queens Park Parade, Kingsthorpe, decided to publicly shame motorists following a recent spate of "bilking" offences.
Following an inquiry from the Chronicle & Echo, police have revealed 1,860 people drove away from forecourts without paying for their fuel last year.
The figures, taken from April 2008 to March 2009, include 979 fill and run incidents in the western area of the county, which includes Northampton.
Across the whole county the figures equate to 35 people every week.
A police spokesman told the Chronicle & Echo the force now has four dedicated police officers to tackle the large number of offences.
Officer attempt to track drivers by using CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology and by checking DVLA databases.
Mr Keary said police in the county were now very good at helping petrol stations tackle fill and run crimes.
He said: "I've been in the industry for 25 years now and we had to battle with everybody to get a decent response from the police for a long time.
"But for the past five or six years they have been fantastic.
"They recognise that people stealing petrol are not just stealing petrol, it also fuels other crimes."
He said his garage suffered three drive-offs last weekend. He added: "It comes in spates. You usually know when the police have caught them because it suddenly stops. It was probably six or eight weeks since we had an incident and then all of a sudden we had three last weekend."
Gerry Hartgrove, owner of the Ashtree service station, in Duston, said his staff were constantly on the look out for potential problems.
He said: "Vigilance is the word really. You have to keep your eyes open all the time and try to see through people.
"Fortunately it is not something that affects us too much but it can be a problem."
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Man dies following motorway smash on Northamptonshire border
- BREAKING NEWS: Police inundated with hundreds of complaints over snowball fights
- Huge cigarette haul by masked burglars in armed raids at Northampton stores
- BREAKING NEWS: Police name man killed in crash on motorway in Northamptonshire
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- BREAKING NEWS: Fishmarket art gallery offered new home
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- New manager of Northampton’s Grosvenor Centre says ‘This is the beginning of a new era’
- Neighbours raise concern about bid to build new house three inches from their home
- Four-storey replacement for Fishmarket gallery should open in September
- Exclusive: Saints voluntarily move key Heineken Cup match to Milton Keynes
- Sooty may be left with bullet in neck following senseless attack
- Ashton determined to end Saints career on a high
- Sons honoured for care of their father
- West Northamptonshire Development Corporation in bid to purchase site of former power station
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
