Fuel theft syndicate exposed

2008-11-05 19:14

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has uncovered a major syndicate responsible for stealing thousands of rands worth of petrol and has warned other large corporations to be on the lookout for similar crimes.

After months of careful detective work, the city's risk management investigation officers nabbed the alleged ringleaders involved in stealing fuel master units from council vehicles and fitting these onto taxis and other private vehicles to fraudulently buy fuel at the municipality's expense.

Giving details of the scam on Wednesday, chairperson of the city's "Copperheads" crime-fighting unit Pieter van Dalen, said six suspects had been charged and were currently out on bail.

Investigators were first alerted to the scam in July 2008, when city electricity services reported an excessively high fuel consumption for one of its vehicles.

"Preliminary findings revealed that a BP 'fuel master unit' had been illegally removed from this vehicle and fitted onto a white Ford Laser, registration unknown.

"Over a period of 12 days, the Laser had re-fuelled 37 times at a cost of almost R18 000," Van Dalen said.

Thieves tried to steal master units

Investigators swooped on various BP service stations across the metropole to track down the culprits, and surveillance footage was obtained at one of the stations, containing details of the Laser and an unknown male.

On September 9, another report was received of a private vehicle refuelling with a council-owned fuel master unit at a service station in Parow.

The registration number of the vehicle showed that the vehicle had been "de-registered" by request.

On September 19, the Ndabeni fleet manager alerted investigators of a break-in at the fleet yard when thieves tried to steal fuel master units.

Van Dalen said the breakthrough came on September 26, when a minibus taxi was caught using a council fuel master unit at a service station in Epping.

The taxi was traced to its owner in Bonteheuwel and a day later, another minibus taxi was caught doing the same at the same service station.

The owner of this taxi was also traced to another address in Bonteheuwel.

Investigators established that the taxi owners were not linked to the illegal activities, and apprehended the drivers.

Both drivers confessed and identified one of the suspects as the person who had fitted the council fuel master units to their taxis.

The investigators were then led to another suspect who worked at the Gugulethu depot of electricity services.

He admitted to stealing the units and implicated a third suspect, the alleged mastermind who had the technical knowledge to remove and fit the units.

Further interrogation of these suspects had identified the alleged ringleader of the syndicate, Van Dalen said.

He would routinely supply taxi drivers with fuel master units for a fee of R250 per fill-up.

'Collective brilliance'

He would accompany the driver to the filling station and once the transaction was completed, he would remove the unit.

The investigation established that the crimes were well planned and executed as the perpetrators knew exactly how to remove a unit from a pool vehicle and return it after a few days.

"It was also common knowledge among taxi operators as to how easy it was to fraudulently access a fuel master unit.

"However, the collective brilliance of the city's investigators has led to their speedy demise.

"This is proof once again, that crime does not pay and that the city is committed to root out theft and corruption within the organisation," Van Dalen said.

- SAPA