By Staff Reporter
TZANEEN- CCTV footage shows a Blue fiat Uno registration WPC 353 GP driving into the filling station in Tzaneen.
The driver stops at the petrol pump and instructs the attendant to fill up his car.
Once filled, the driver starts his car and speeds away without paying the petrol attendant.
The attendant tries chasing after the vehicle, but by then the car is long gone.
Due to the high price of fuel, lots of garages have fallen victim to petrol thieves.
Over the past few weeks petrol station owners around the country have reported incidents where motorists refuel their vehicles and drive off without paying.
Drivers are now paying R21.10 a litre for petrol, even though it has dropped from R23.16 motorists are still filling pinch.
According to the Fuel Retailers’ Association, petrol theft occurs in a number of different ways:
*Filling up and when it is time to pay the motorists to drive off. This is a planned theft.
* Using a cloned card (again planned theft). This is happening more frequently. A cloned card customer does not necessarily drive off but the payment is from someone else’s account with cloned information. Later, when the real customer picks up that the card was used to purchase and brings evidence that they were never at that filling point, the charge is reversed and the retailer loses out.
* Alternatively petrol thieves come with a card that has no funds. They first fill up and then present the card. When the transaction is declined they insist that they have enough funds and end up driving off without paying.
If the vehicle is spotted please call: 073 074 9716 or 082 704 1814.
