Forecourt felons causing a return of service

Pump attendants are back as soaring petrol prices are tempting more motorists to drive away from pumps without paying.

As prices for standard-grade 91 octane petrol head towards $1.40 a litre, some Auckland service stations are losing hundreds of dollars a week from "drive-offs".
Gull Petroleum's New Zealand manager, Geoff Gillott, said yesterday that his company had just this week started restoring attendants at busy times to keep an eye out for thefts on the forecourt of its Takanini station.

He said this would be studied as a trial for others hit by a sharp increase in thefts over the past six months or so.

Mr Gillott said this had reversed the trend from forecourt attendants to automated systems that were monitored by staff inside stations.

He was unable to confirm a claim made to the Herald by one of his Takanini customers that the station lost $220 in fuel thefts on Monday alone.

He said that would be untypically high, but he agreed that petrol had become so expensive that some motorists took the twisted view oil companies could afford to give them the occasional "free fill".

"That doesn't wash with us. That fuel costs us a lot, and the police take it seriously if we give them details of these people - it is premeditated theft."

Mr Gillott said most thieves traced through the motor vehicle registry paid up when confronted with footage of themselves from closed-circuit television cameras.

He also said his company used a debt collection agency as well as calling the police.

The manager of a South Auckland station of another brand, who did not want to be named without head office clearance, admitted similar frustration over fuel thefts.

He recalled a few mornings ago when a man slapped a $10 note on his counter in attempted payment for $71 of fuel, before hurrying back to his car.

The manager said he ran after the thief, shouting out and bumping his knee on a fridge, before another customer stood in front of the vehicle and blocked it from being driven away.

The thief then handed over the rest of what was owed.

A spokesman for the Motor Trade Association, Andy Cuming, said the cost of refuelling a car from empty often reached $70 to $80. This meant it did not take many thefts before service stations were losing hundreds of dollars a week.

He said independent service stations, as opposed to those owned by oil companies, were left with margins of only about four to five cents for every litre of petrol sold.

"So they have got to pour a fair few litres of gas to pay for $80 that has just driven down the road."