Pensioner, 87, among victims of ‘callous’ gangs draining heating oil from rural homes

Theft gangs are draining heating oil from tanks belonging to residents in rural areas as the price of fuel continues to rise.

In one case, thieves stole a pensioner’s entire supply at her home three weeks after she had filled up at a cost of £2,000. 

Jean Piper, 87, is among the victims of a rising tide of theft that has been plaguing the countryside and already hard-pressed farming industry.

Jean, who lives in West Devon, discovered the tank was empty when she went to make a meal and her cooker wouldn’t work.  

The cost of thefts from properties nationally has doubled between 2021 and 2022 along with indicators showing rural crime in general is also on the increase, as reported by Metro.co.uk yesterday.  

The number of fuel raids goes up even higher, to an average of one a day, when farms are included, according to research by NFU Mutual.  

The raids come as householders struggle to pay bills amid the cost of living crisis. The cost of heating oil surged from £378 per 1,000 litres in 2020 to £940 last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.  

Jean first thought there was a fault when she discovered her Rayburn cooker and heating were not working.

The tank had to be refilled following the incident in May last year.  

‘It’s a lot of money to pay out again, but more than that it really shook me up to think someone had come onto my property,’ Jean said. ‘I still feel very nervous about it now, as well as it being a lot of money to lose.’

The oil is delivered from a country road so Jean suspects that whoever drained the tank in the bottom of her back garden had seen it being filled up. Her daughter saw a white van there at around the time of the theft, but they are not sure if it was connected. 

They suspect the thieves probably struck under cover of darkness before escaping down the lane. Jean reported the theft to police and NFU Mutual settled her claim for the stolen oil. 

She is now in the process of getting security lighting installed at the front and the back of the property. 

Charles Farquhar discovered a suspected organised gang had raided his home in Elswoth, Cambridgeshire, driving off with 600 litres of fuel.  

Mr Farquhar, 48, was alerted to the raid, which took place in broad daylight last April, by track marks at the back of his property.

‘You feel angry and violated,’ he said.  

‘They just reversed in, emptied the van and went.

‘Prices are high, you work for a salary to get by and then someone comes and doesn’t give a damn and nicks your oil.’ 

The farm manager paid £730 to replace the fuel, and while he was insured he believes he was the victim of an organised gang which remains at large and could strike again.

Fuel theft from homes doubled from 34 to 68 cases in 2022, according to NFU Mutual. The overall cost as judged from claims rose by £60,000 to £207,000 year on year.  

Although the numbers seem low, they are considered significant by the rural insurer in terms of the relatively few households with a fuel tank.

The figures come on top of numbers from the company showing rural crime, which also includes thefts of quad bikes and livestock, rose by more than 40% in the first quarter of 2022.  

Andrew Chalk, rural insurance specialist at NFU Mutual, said: ‘We know from years of experience helping members fight rural theft that when prices rise, thefts rise with them, and sadly this is borne out by these latest figures.

‘Criminals are opportunistic and NFU Mutual has had reports of thieves siphoning off domestic heating oil from storage tanks, sometimes targeting the same property more than once.

‘With fuel orders often coming with lengthy delivery times, thefts can callously leave homeowners without heating or hot water when temperatures are at their lowest, not to mention damaging the storage tanks and risking pollution. 

‘And with isolated rural homes more dependent on these fuels to heat their homes, the knowledge that their property could be a target for thieves can make homeowners and their families feel vulnerable.’

Householders are being advised to take precautions including obscuring or hiding storage tanks from view.  

‘Criminals don’t like to be seen, heard or held up, so measures like fitting tank alarms, security lighting or CCTV, and making sure the property isn’t easily accessible should help,’ Mr Chalk said.  

‘We know that thieves will often target several properties within an area, so we’re encouraging people to share information about suspicious sightings with their local community and police.  

‘We recommend joining local Neighbourhood Watch schemes and there are also a number of farm watch and rural watch groups on social media which are fast becoming the eyes and ears of the countryside.’ 

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said of the Elworth theft: ‘We were contacted on April 28, 2022 with reports a large quantity of oil had been stolen from a property in Elsworth.

‘Unfortunately, due to a lack of evidential opportunities no arrests have been made in connection with the theft.’

The National Rural Crime Unit is due to launch on April 1 and will aim to ‘keep our rural communities safe and make these areas hostile for criminals’. The taskforce plans to counter ‘emerging threats’ such as an international black market for machinery said to be behind thefts of machinery, GPS systems and vehicles from farms.  

The government maintains that it is ‘committed to driving down rural crime’ and is recruiting extra police officers in England and Wales through its uplift programme as well supporting targeted measures.

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