A fraudulent fuel thief was arrested before he could flee with thousands of Rands worth of diesel when diligent Marshall Security members spotted his vehicle, used in a previous incident of fuel theft in Umhlanga, at a petrol station in Umdloti this morning.
A week ago, on the 26th of November, the Marshall Security Emergency Dispatch Centre was contacted by a client on Ridge Road in Umhlanga after the occupants of a white Toyota Hilux had purchased diesel to the value of R9,000 with fraudulent cards.
A description of the vehicle was circulated to all our Armed Response Officers and Special Operation Team members to be on the lookout.
At approximately 05h30 this morning, the wanted Toyota Hilux was spotted by one of our Armed Response Officers at a client’s fuel station on South Beach Road in Umdloti. The suspect was filling up a 450L tank, fixed inside the bin of the bakkie, also to the value of approximately R9,000.
Members of our Special Operations Team were immediately activated to assist and continued to observe the single occupant suspect as he left the fuel station. The vehicle was then stopped on the M27 upon exiting Umdloti and the suspect was immediately arrested and found with fraudulent cards in his possession.
The Durban North Police were notified and arrived on scene a short while later. Upon further investigation it was established that the same vehicle had been involved in numerous fraud cases around KZN. The Hilux was noted as a possible stolen vehicle that had been restamped, and will be sent to the Isipingo pound for an enquiry.
The fuel station owner in Umdloti was informed of the incident and was at the time not aware that he had been scammed, and will proceed to open a case with the SAPS.
The suspect was handed over to the Durban North Police who will investigating further.
How does fraudulent fuel purchases work?
Scammers duplicate fleet management bank cards registered to businesses, and then use the cloned cards to purchase fuel. The transaction is successful at the time of purchase, until the company who are the legitimate owners of the bank card realise their card has been cloned, and then gets the transaction reversed at the relevant bank. The owner of the fuel station then suffers with the loss of fuel.
