‘A guy did a runner in a Jaguar’: the petrol theft scandal – and the garage owners struggling to stop it

Since the start of the Iran war in February, there has been a 23% rise in fuel theft, with more than £1.2m stolen from British forecourts each week. Why aren’t the police doing more to apprehend the culprits? A petrol station tucked away in the suburbs of Birmingham seems an unlikely place for a crime spree. But this garage has become a prime target for thieves. Some fuel runners are easy to spot, approaching the petrol pumps in face masks, but after a recent spate of fill-and-dashes by less ...

By Sammy Gecsoyler