Man hurt in fuel drive-off

Mobil Te Ngae owner Matt Ralm says the theft of petrol has increased over the last few weeks. Photo / Bewn Fraser

Five petrol thefts a week - at one station.

A Rotorua petrol station manager was knocked to the ground by a driver stealing gas and more than a week's wages has been lost in theft from one city forecourt.

Mobil Te Ngae owner Matt Ralm said drive-offs had increased significantly from one theft every three months to about five a week in the past four weeks. Thefts ranged from $70 to $120 in fuel and that equated to one full-time employee's wage a week - a cost he said he cannot sustain.

He has since changed to prepaid fuel, but said his customers had found that frustrating and were venting that towards his staff.

"I want them to know why we have to do pre-pay now - it's because of all these thefts and ultimately it falls directly on me to pay for it," Mr Ralm said.

"I've heard it's bad in other areas but I've been in Rotorua for three years and never had this many drive-offs.

"Unlike other stations which are owned by companies, I own the fuel here so I have to pay for it. Our customers have been coming here for years but now we have to authorise every single pump - my manager got abused by a guy because we released one pump but not another."

Te Ngae Mobil manager Satinder Singh is hit as he tries to prevent a drive-off.

Mr Singh was not badly hurt, but his injuries were photographed by police.

"Driving into people is not on, I've told my staff not to put their safety at risk," Mr Ralm said.

"These people hurt someone for the sake of $80 of gas."

Rotorua police crime manager Inspector Ed van den Broek said drive-offs were linked to other crimes and he urged petrol station owners to switch to prepaid fuel.

"That also deters thieves from coming on to premises altogether - they know they're not going to get away with anything," he said.

"These people usually steal from inside as well. We're also finding that they're then going on to commit burglaries or other offending. If petrol stations take a tough stance with prepay then thieves and burglars won't have the ability to get around as much as they can."

Mr Van den Broek said people working at petrol stations should protect themselves and not put themselves in any danger.