Domestic heating oil raids as prices soar
 12 May 2008
Rapidly increasing oil prices are leading to raids on domestic heating oil tanks, as thieves attempt to cash in on current markets.
According to a report in the Times, thieves are driving around the countryside in tankers and stealing domestic heating oil during the night. Farmers and rural householders have witnessed a sharp rise in thefts of domestic heating oil, "from Cornwall to the far north of Scotland", over the past six months.
Heating oil customers are advised to ensure they secure their supplies against raiders, as high oil prices mean that opportunistic thieves are turning away from lead and copper towards home heating oil.
Figures from NFU Mutual Insurance indicate that it has received over one hundred claims for domestic heating oil theft, estimated at more than £50,000.
Tim Price, from NFU Mutual, told the Times: "It's a new crime as far as we are concerned; we had not seen domestic oil being taken until about six months ago…We didn't come across these thefts until last year but in the past six months there has been quite a rash of heating oil thefts going on across the country."
North Yorkshire Police told The Press that there have been 27 thefts of home heating oil in the region since the start of 2008, up from just six during the same period of 2007.
An estimated 1.5 million people in Britain use domestic heating oil, with isolated and rural properties most at risk of theft.
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