By Callum Ludwig
An Upper Yarra petrol station has been the target of theft twice in as many months with the same alleged perpetrator involved.
The Local Fuel & Country Fried Chicken Wesburn station shared a post on Facebook hoping to raise awareness of the concern from the community and for other stations, having also reported the incidents to the Warburton Police Station.
Hollie Beament was the console operator on both occasions in December and the start of February and said it occurred on a weekend each time.
“He did it really quickly and from inside the petrol station, it’s hard to see when it’s quite busy, whether or not people are coming in with plates on or if they are looking a little bit sketchy,” she said.
“The first time he drove in and parked at bowser two, which is opposite bower one and in front of bowser three, and I didn’t pay particular notice at the time because it is quite uncommon and I was busy doing other things, it’s only when another car had come along and went to pay for their fuel and it went to charge them two amounts.”
Initially, Ms Beament thought the double-up might have been from someone filling a jerrycan, which she said can happen, but upon reviewing the security cameras she saw clear footage of the alleged offender.
Ms Beament said the footage showed the man filling up, looking around including at the camera before getting in the car and driving off.
“It was a black vehicle, a Mazda, and the guy had a really large hat on, sunglasses, a mask and shorts and a singlet at the time because it was hot,” she said.
“I contacted the police in the first instance, what we usually do is look up the registration plate on the VicRoads website to give to the police as well and I noticed straight away that the vehicle didn’t match the identification of the car, the plate said that it was a Volkswagen but I know it was a Mazda.”
In the petrol station’s Facebook post, they believe the man is in his late 20s or early 30s and is caucasian, of medium height with dark hair. The license plate on the vehicle during the first offence read ‘XKC 975’.
Ms Beament said the most recent incident on the first weekend of February was similar; at a busy time and noticed when a customer was almost charged for two orders of fuel.
“I noticed straight away on the cameras when he drove into the station that it was the same Mazda again, but this time it didn’t have plates on it and this time he had a black mask and a cap on,” she said.
“This time he didn’t get in the driver’s side, he got in the passenger side, he filled up and the driver was starting to roll the car off as he jumped in before they drove off,”
“I checked the back of the car and there was either something covering the plates or no plates on it either.”
Police recommended the station locks the pumps if they notice the alleged perpetrator, or anyone else acting suspiciously, going forward. No other nearby petrol stations appear to have been targeted.
Ms Beament said if it’s ongoing, that’s absolutely what they’ll have to resort to.
“It’s a bit of an impossible when you’re the one-man show running the station at the time because when you lock the pumps, you have to wait until people stand there trying to put their fuel in to unlock them and that could deter people, which is fair enough because their time is valuable,” she said.
“We were thinking maybe just to limit it to weekends for locking the pumps but our locals are still affected by that because they come on the weekends to get their fuel for during the week,”
“Given that Warburton and surrounds are becoming so increasingly busy, you’d have to lock it every second time somebody drove in because there are so many tourists.”
In 2018, Victoria Police changed a controversial policy introduced in 2013 that meant police officers only had to get involved in petrol theft incidents if the vehicle was stolen, had fake plates or was owned by a known criminal, with the onus on service stations to prove an offence had occurred.
The change also meant civil debts in regards to petrol stations, such as when a driver fills up but is unable to pay, promises the attendant they will return and pay but fails to do so, would be recorded as an offence.
Warburton Police were contacted for comment.
