Family-run petrol stations are having to call in bailiffs to recover just a fraction of the “thousands upon thousands” of pounds worth of fuel stolen from the forecourt. Over the last five years, drivers have been consistently filling up at the pumps and making off without payment in high numbers. The offence, known in some areas as ‘bilking’, is far from a new crime but has steadily increased across the country since the pandemic and when the cost of living crisis “kicked in”. And Kent is not immune from the fuel-swiping epidemic. Last year, 971 reports of people failing to pay at the pumps i…
