Kevin Eastwood, since 1998 the Executive Director of the trade body BOSS, the British Oil Security Syndicate, is retiring. Claire Nichol, pictured, Managing Director, has been appointed as the new Executive Director to lead BOSS as it expands Payment Watch, the fuel debt recovery service for forecourt operators.
Kevin was behind the setting up BOSS in 1991 and has led BOSS in its campaign to reduce crime on Britainโs forecourts. Kevin built partnerships as ways to tackle forecourt fuel crime, including Forecourt Watch which brought retailers, police and the oil industry together in a coordinated approach for the first time. In 2010 BOSS sought to help fuel retailers to recover mounting losses from No Means of Payment incidents by introducing Payment Watch, as a debt recovery service in the forecourt fuel sector.
Kevin said: โIโd like to thank everyone involved with BOSS. Together weโve worked hard to deal with forecourt crime and find new and more effective ways to tackle forecourt fuel crime. Iโm confident that with Claire at the helm BOSS will continue to play its part in more innovative ways in helping to reduce forecourt losses through No Means of Payment and Drive Off incidents, whilst driving up standards of safety and security with all forecourt operators across the UK.โ
Claire Nichol joined BOSS in 2006 as Head of Membership Services developing the administrative and support services offered to members. More recently she has overseen the GDPR compliant Electronic Reporting System for Payment Watch, as well as reengineering operating procedures for recovering unpaid fuel debts.
Background
BOSS estimates that 1.7 million incidents of forecourt fuel crime take place in the UK a year. These incidents cost forecourt operators ยฃ88m, it’s estimated (2019). Until 2020, forecourt fuel crime was dominated by Drive-Off incidents; however, No Means of Payment (NMoP) now represent two-thirds of all incidents by volume and value. Visit www.bossuk.org.
