Almost £200,000, roughly €235,000, worth of fuel is stolen every single day from service stations across the United Kingdom. That is the picture drawn by the latest report from Forecourt Eye, a British company specializing in crime prevention at refuelling sites. Since the military escalation in the Middle East and the subsequent disruption of the Strait of Hormuz began affecting energy markets on 28 February, robberies and drive-offs at petrol stations in the UK have surged to unprecedented levels. The collected data show a sharply rising phenomenon: in the first five months of the conflict, from March to July, incidents of unpaid refuelling jumped by 20%. In absolute terms, the quantity of fuel stolen daily rose from 87,000 to more than 108,900 litres. As prices climbed in the meantime, the total economic value of the stolen fuel increased by 48%, reaching a record estimated £194,000 per day spread across about 8,359 stations in the country. The wave of thefts is driven not only by organised criminal gangs.
United Kingdom, fuel thefts on the rise
The most striking element concerns drivers with no prior convictions: among “clean” motorists there was a 23% rise in thefts and a 26% increase in the volume stolen. Two methods predominate: the classic high-speed drive-off immediately after refuelling and the staged inability to pay, where the customer fills the tank and then tells the cashier they have neither cash nor cards. Michelle Henchoz, managing director of Forecourt Eye, told Adnkronos she was surprised while preparing the report: “We expected that the rise in fuel costs caused by the Middle East conflict would negatively affect people’s lives. But we never imagined a response, even if only from a small portion of them, of this kind — to the point of pushing them to commit such serious offences.” Currently, petrol in the UK ranges between £1.56 and £1.61 per litre (about €1.82–€1.88); diesel between £1.74 and £1.81 per litre (about €2.03–€2.11). Compared with Italy, where the final price has historically been shaped by excise duties and VAT — which alone can account for more than 55% of the cost per litre — the UK price structure follows similar dynamics. In addition to the fuel duty, a fixed British excise of 52.95 pence per litre, and VAT at 20%, the UK market is strongly affected by exchange rate swings between the pound and the dollar, together with refining margins and the commercial strategies of individual distribution chains.
“When crude oil prices rise and the pound weakens, the price increase at UK pumps is immediate and severe, turning the simple act of refuelling into a source of strong social tension. This is what we are seeing daily across the country,” adds Michelle Henchoz. “For this reason we are supporting fuel station owners in efforts to curb offences that are becoming more organised and sophisticated. To reduce losses, several operators are beginning to adopt rapid-reporting platforms and facial-recognition networks capable of alerting staff to the arrival of vehicles or individuals already flagged.”
Elsewhere in the UK, high fuel prices are also producing opposite effects. This morning, British energy giant BP published its second-quarter results, reporting a profit of $5.73 billion — nearly double the $3.2 billion recorded in the first quarter — driven by the surge in oil and energy commodity prices following tensions in the Middle East. (By Alessandro Allocca)