Caught on camera: Vehicles that police believe were involved in recent fuel thefts at APCO Waurn Ponds.
ERIN PEARSON
APCO has put its service station staff on alert amid an “epidemic” of motorists leaving without paying for fuel in Geelong, according to management.
North Geelong station manager Tim Mahoney said the warning to staff followed initiatives including photo boards with images of alleged thieves and cash rewards for information.
“We’ve been alerting staff that with the rising petrol price we might see more and more people taking petrol without paying,” Mr Mahoney said.
“We have a very low tolerance for this type of thing and police will be contacted if drivers don’t return and pay by the end of the day.”
Mr Mahoney had a special message for fuel thieves.
“We have cameras and we will see you.”
The Independent revealed concern over service station “drive-offs” last week after petrol prices reached a two-year high of $1.45 a litre at some stations.
Geelong police told the paper they believed a recent increase in theft of number plates was linked to the rising fuel prices and drive-offs. Police had found that cars involved in petrol thefts often carried stolen plates.
Mr Mahoney said APCO staff were also reporting an increase in customers “pretending” to be unaware their debit card accounts were empty after filling up with fuel.
“There are some genuine people who do drive-off and some are quite shocked by their mistake but there are hard-core people out there stealing petrol time and time again.”
Mr Mahoney said his station lost $489.50 in fuel to drive-offs in November, with about $200 repaid. About $353.05 was lost in December.
APCO director Peter Anderson, who has seven stores in the Geelong area, said the company’s Waurn Ponds station was a drive-off hot spot.
“The bigger and busier the store the more incidents we seem to have,” he said.
“People also hit at the busiest times with well-planned attacks. It’s becoming an epidemic.”
Waurn Ponds manager Phil Gleeson said his station was averaging 20 drive-offs a month at an average cost of $60 each.
The station lost $1270 in December and $1270 in January.
“There are people out there who just don’t want to pay for fuel and it certainly seems to spike when the price of petrol goes up.”
Geelong Police Sergeant Graeme Smith said the city’s service stations were reporting about 80 drive-offs a month this year.
He urged motorists to “think twice” about stealing fuel.
