Haulier si nightly to lions fuel
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6-7 May Commercial i near Peterborough.
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• Hauliers in Hartlepool are siphoning diesel from their vehides and storing it overnight in a desperate bid to beat fuel thieves, Managers at Burn Roadbased Baxketh—a specialist in waste disposal and scrap metal—say they are being forced to protect their fuel after being targeted dozens of times by thieves.
The company's waste manager Pat Allen spoke out after a Hartlepool solicitor told magistrates that fuel theft was "hardly a serious crime".
Allen says: "This kind of theft just goes on and on. We've been hit dozens of times; we just can't leave diesel in our lorry tanks overnight because they'd steal it, using siphoning hoses and drums.
"So, every evening, we pump the diesel out of the tanks and then refill them the next morning. We've only got four or five drivers, so it wastes a lot of man-hours—but we feel we've got no choice. We just can't afford to give away diesel."
The thieves are so determined they even work through the deafening noise of the company's alarm system.
Allen says the solicitor who played down the seriousness of fuel theft "doesn't live in the real world" since diesel theft is now big business, costing companies thousands of pounds a year.
More evidence of the black market in stolen diesel came from Great Harwood in Lancashire recently.
Thieves there targeted Ridings Auto Services, bypassing a diesel pump's electrical system before stealing 3,000 litres of fuel, with a value of about 22,500, "It was obviously quite sophisticated, because the garage's mechanic said he didn't have the technology to do what they did," says sergeant David Redding, who urges hauliers to beware of suspiciously cheap fuel.