According to the latest Forecourt Crime Index from the trade body BOSS, the British Oil Security Syndicate, in the second quarter of this year incidents of unpaid fuel went up by 4.7 per cent. That caused the BOSS Forecourt Crime Index to increase to 256.0 for the quarter (245.5 in the first quarter). The Index is now at its highest level since it began in 2015.
BOSS collates the index from reports of No Means of Payment (NMoP) and Drive-Off-Failure-to-Pay incidents made to Payment Watch, an unpaid fuel debt recovery service operated by BOSS. In that quarter, the average number of unpaid fuel incidents per site was 28 (compared with 27 the quarter before) with NMoP incidents accounting for 62 per cent of all Payment Watch reports. The average cost of NMoP incidents was £68.19 (£71.68 in the quarter before), while the average cost of a Drive-Off-Failure-to-Pay incident fell to £52.51 per incident (£55.28, in the previous quarter).
The number of litres of fuel taken for a Drive-Off-Failure-to-Pay incident averaged 34.32 litres (33.96 litres in the previous quarter). The average litres drawn in an NMoP incident rose to 43.16 litres (41.5 litres in the quarter before).
Increases in the amount of fuel taken per incident occurred at a time when the cost of fuel eased to an average of 145.1 pence per litre (ppl) for unleaded fuel (148.1 ppl the quarter before). Fuel prices are now at a level last seen in the final quarter of 2021.
On sites where Payment Watch operates, 86 per cent of NMoP fuel debts were collected whereas the recovery rate for Drive-Off-Failure-to-Pay incidents reached 93pc where BOSS receives accurate vehicle information.
Claire Nichol, the executive director at BOSS, pictured, said: “The Forecourt Crime Index is at record levels and demonstrates that incidents of unpaid fuel are continuing to grow. While No Means of Payment dominate incident reports, we consistently see around 80pc of motorists settling payments within a few days. This suggests that most incidents are genuine mistakes, however, we also know that a few motorists do take advantage of the good nature of forecourt retailers.
“We are seeing more retailers moving to online reporting of unpaid fuel incidents to Payment Watch, improving accuracy, efficiency and speeding up response times. In addition, by analysing incident reports nationally, we can highlight hotspots and identify vehicles that have been repeatedly involved in unpaid fuel incidents.”
More details
Forecourt crime reduction guides for forecourt retailers reduce incidents and to keep forecourts safe places to work and shop are available from BOSS. Visit https://bossuk.org/guidance/.
