A lorry driver with an Aberdeen-based company was left “shaken up” after crowbar-wielding thieves attempted to steal fuel from the vehicle.
The driver with Dyce Carriers managed to escape “unscathed” after the thieves’ vehicle and contacting police.
Occurring on an industrial estate in the Doncaster area, the incident happened after a group of people attempted to steal fuel from the vehicle.
The haulage firm has shared information about the incident online while applauding the driver’s bravery and quick thinking.
However, they said this is an issue staff are regularly facing.
‘It’s probably happening every night to someone’
The siphoning of fuel from large vehicles has been on the rise long before the most recent surge in the cost of fuel.
Now, even drivers who are sitting in empty trucks with no cargo, are targeted for their fuel.
Jason Moir, managing director of Dyce Carriers, said the east of England from Newcastle to north London was a “real hotspot” for these incidents.
Speaking about how many of their drivers have experienced similar situations, he said: “It’s probably happened four or five, six times this year.
“And we are one haulier, out of everybody, all the wholesalers in the UK, it’s probably happening every night to someone.”
Describing the most recent event on Saturday, October 29, Mr Moir said the thieves had become much more brazen over the years.
He said: “Normally it would be a case of the driver would wake up, start the truck or something, and they would run away. But this gang obviously were a lot more brazen and started damaging the truck.
“But the driver drove forward and blocked their car in and when the police did turn up, they seized the vehicle.”
Like many other companies, Dyce Carriers has Snap cards for drivers to park in service stations and lorry parks which tend to be more secure.
However, drivers may not always be close to one of these or prefer to park in known laybys where nearby facilities are better and provide more options.
Mr Moir said the industrial estate was somewhere the driver had used many times over the years.
With increasing cuts to public services such as the police, the Aberdeenshire resident said the situation is “probably only going to get worse”.
Thieves can empty a fuel tank in 10 minutes
With thieves using bigger and better equipment, sometimes all it can take is five to 10 minutes before a fuel tank is emptied.
Mr Moir said: “In the old days you see, you’re talking a long time ago, they would have had to suck it out of the tank with their mouth where as now, they come along with big tanks in the back of vans with 12 volt pumps that are extremely quiet and can suck out everything.
“Fast pumps that can empty a tank of £800-900 worth of fuel, and it could be gone in probably five to 10 minutes.”
Companies try and install anti-syphoning devices on the vehicles but it ends up causing more damage to the lorries when people tamper with them to access the fuel.
This added to the money needed to replace fuel and the cost of organising a recovery for a truck with an empty tank, makes these vital journeys all the more costly.
A police spokeswoman from South Yorkshire Police said: “Officers were called to Decoy Bank North at around 12.40am on October 29 to a report of theft from a motor vehicle.
“A lorry driver was reported to have been disturbed by a group of males who were stealing fuel from the vehicle. They were disturbed and made off from the scene.
“Inquiries were carried out and the incident was closed pending further information coming to light.”
Conversation