Petrol theft surges 62% as drive-offs hit retailers harder

A wave of higher pump prices has turned into a costly forecourt crime spike, with one retailer in the south of England now seeing about five drive-offs a week at each of his five garages and losing roughly £2,000 a week across the business.

Figures compiled from Pay My Fuel, which says it has systems across 1,400 forecourts, showed fuel theft rising 62% year on year. Average drive-offs increased from 2.1 per forecourt a week in March 2025 to 3.4 in March 2026, while the average value of each theft climbed 46% over the same period.

Josh, who runs the five sites, said the jump has been abrupt. He had previously been dealing with one or two drive-offs a week at each garage, but is now facing around five at every forecourt. Retailers say the problem worsened after petrol and diesel prices surged during the Iran conflict, and many have also reported more abuse directed at staff as customers reacted to the higher prices.

The price shock was visible at the pumps. RAC Fuel Watch said petrol rose from 132.83p per litre on 28 February to around 158p by 9 April, while diesel also climbed steeply. RAC said that since the conflict began, filling a typical family car had become about £14 more expensive for petrol and about £27 more expensive for diesel.

Forecourt security firm Forecourt Eye said a comparison of 500 filling stations before and after the conflict escalated showed a 10% increase in fuel-theft incidents and a 15% rise in first-time offenders whose number plates were not already blacklisted. That pattern points to both opportunistic theft and repeat offending, with higher prices appearing to widen the pool of would-be drive-offs as well as lifting the value of each stolen tank.

The wider cost is now large enough to matter for the whole sector. Other reporting put UK fuel-theft losses at about £1.2 million a week, and one estimate suggested they could reach about £1.25 million a week if current patterns were replicated across Britain’s 8,400 forecourts. The government said fuel thieves “must face the full force of the law”, while police said forces were taking a proactive approach.