Guess who is behind the Camera? Came across this on the iii board, link posted by medman. Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd., 02 January 2001
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This Is London
New cameras focus on fuel bandits
by David Williams, Motoring Editor
Twenty-four surveillance is being launched by police at London filling stations to combat a huge rise in the number of people stealing fuel - following a year of sharp petrol price rises.
Up to £2 million worth of fuel is now being stolen from forecourts in the capital every month. Motorists are driving off with up to £60 of fuel at a time, although the average haul in London is £26.
The boom in "drive-offs" has doubled since the problem was reported in the summer, when 1,200 garages within the M25 were losing between £750,000 and £1 million every month.
Then the British Oil Security Syndicate (Boss) said thousands of drive-offs were occurring every four weeks. Nationally the crisis cost petrol retailers at least £11.2 million last year.
New Year figures, however, are expected to show a doubling in drive-offs in the past eight months, and police say the crimewave is nationwide.
Now the Met has begun fighting back by installing high-resolution spy cameras linked to a powerful mobile police computer, and arrests have already been made. The computer reads every car number plate entering a forecourt and checks them against lists of known offenders who have previously been reported to police following drive-offs.
Police also programmed the computer to issue an alert if it spots vehicles involved in other crimes or with no valid tax disc.
In most cases offenders are approached by plain-clothes officers before they drive off. Backed by the oil industry, the operation was launched secretly at 30 south London forecourts and is expected to spread throughout London before going nationwide. Detective Inspector Larry Lawrence said: "The computer works in the blink of an eye and has proved very successful.
"We are pleased to be working with Boss to tackle forecourt crime. The figures are quite high but this type of crime is preventable.
"We believe the pattern we have found in south London reflects a London-wide problem."
Tom Sterling, Boss chief, said: "The habitual drive-off offender is the tip of the iceberg as forecourt crime goes. People who do this normally engage in other crimes too." Earlier this year Boss reported that since 1998 credit card fraud at filling stations across Britain leapt from £12.2 million to £19 million.
Drivers claiming to have "forgotten their wallet" and driving off rose to £5 million this year.
Police also urged oil firms to install barriers at petrol station forecourts. They feel that with further rises in the cost of petrol, drive-offs will continue to soar.
In January 2000 a litre of unleaded cost 72.9p a litre. Now it is around 77.9p.
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