A garage owner in Erdington, Birmingham, is grappling with a sharp rise in "fill-and-dash" fuel theft, part of a wider surge across UK forecourts since the start of the Iran war in February 2026. Shailesh Parekh, who owns six petrol stations in the city, says thieves have become bolder and less predictable, ranging from masked runners to well-dressed drivers in expensive cars, with the crime now happening weekly or even daily. The trend matters because it is squeezing small forecourt operators financially while raising questions about why police are not doing more to catch offenders.

Nationally, fuel theft has risen by 23% since February, according to Forecourt Eye, which processes payments for roughly 1,000 UK garages, with incidents climbing from 9,089 in January and February to 11,170 in March and April; the Times estimates over £1.2m is stolen from forecourts weekly. Parekh says theft cost him more than £40,000 last year, with his Erdington station alone seeing three drive-offs in the first week of July and 12 in June. The Petrol Retailers Association attributes the rise partly to opportunistic first-time offenders amid rising living costs, while fuel prices themselves have climbed sharply since mid-February 2026, with petrol rising from 131p to 155p a litre and diesel from 141p to 176p a litre.