Nearly £200,000 in Fuel Stolen From UK Forecourts Every Day Since Iran War Began

Drive-off thefts are up a fifth in five months, industry analysis shows, as pump prices squeeze drivers

By Barnaby "Bottom-Line" Coyne

Every day since the Iran war began, British forecourts have watched roughly £200,000 in fuel disappear without payment — drivers pulling away before the card machine ever gets touched.

According to industry analysis cited by BBC Business, incidents of drive-off theft have climbed by a fifth over five months. The outlet ties the surge to the period since the Iran conflict started, though it does not spell out the exact mechanism linking the two — a gap worth flagging rather than papering over. The likeliest thread, based on what's reported, is cost: when pump prices rise, some drivers decide the risk of driving off is worth it.

Forecourt operators absorb that loss first. Independent station owners, who often run on thin margins already squeezed by card-processing fees and business rates, are the ones left short at the till. Some respond by demanding prepayment at the pump — a policy that punishes honest customers to guard against dishonest ones. Others simply eat the cost and hope volume elsewhere covers it.

There's a broader lesson here about who bears the weight of geopolitical shocks. Missile strikes and shipping-lane worries move oil futures on trading floors in London and New York. But the theft data shows the ripple lands somewhere much smaller: a kiosk clerk in Leeds or Luton, watching a car speed off the forecourt, doing the arithmetic on whether to chase it.

BBC Business's reporting rests on a single industry analysis; we haven't independently verified the underlying figures, and readers should treat the £200,000-a-day estimate as an industry-sourced number, not an audited one.

Somebody's paying for this. Let's find out who.

— Compiled from reporting by BBC Business.

The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."