By Bridget Cook
CASEY petrol station owners are being urged to introduce a ‘wall of shame’ to help deter petrol theft, as fuel price skyrocketed to about $1.50 this week.
Apco Service station in Cranbourne implemented the ‘wall of shame’ late last year, offering $100 to anyone who identifies petrol thieves pictured on the wall.
Apco Service Stations director Peter Anderson said since the wall of shame was erected at the Dandenong-Hastings Road station, there hadn’t been a single drive-off in the past couple of months.
Mr Anderson encouraged other service stations to do the same thing to deter the crime. The encouragement comes as police released a call for public assistance this week, to locate people involved in petrol thefts throughout the City of Casey.
Police want to speak the owner and occupants of a distinctive white Daihatsu Feroza, short wheel base, two door, 4×4 sedan, involved in numerous petrol thefts in Hallam, Hampton Park and Lynbrook.
The vehicle has a black bonnet, four rectangular spotlights mounted on a roof rack and two large round spotlights mounted on a front nudge bar.
It also has a white communications aerial mounted on the front bar, mag wheels and a red P -plate displayed on the windscreen.
Leading Senior Constable Mick Gledhill said in all occasions, the driver remained in the vehicle while the passenger dispensed the petrol. The passenger is described as between 18 and 25 years old.
Mr Anderson said he was thrilled with the results of the wall of shame system so far. He said he came up with the idea about four years back and introduced it to their North Geelong store.
“When we put the $100 reward up for information that leads to charges, we started to have calls left, right and centre,” he said. They decide to move the board to the Cranbourne station last year, after having a lot of problems with petrol theft in the area.
“We were having between $300 and $400 worth of drive-offs on that site per month,” he said.
“When the board went up, immediately we saw a decline in drive-offs, and in January and February this year we had none.”
Mr Anderson said the board had helped police make arrests, as most of the time police are unable to identify those involved from CCTV as they had unregistered cars or stolen number plates.
“We have had cases where people’s information led to charges.” Mr Anderson said people involved in accidental drive-offs did not need to worry.
“We only put people on the wall of shame after police come back to us and tell us they could not identify the people involved,” he said.
Anyone with information about petrol thefts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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