Strange things afoot at the Circle-K (well, BP garage).

Quite busy, line of 5-6 people waiting to pay. My turn, pump six I say. Cashier asks me if I’m sure, the chap who’s just walked out the door has paid for that. I am sure, that’s my vehicle at pump six. Few seconds pause while cashiers confer and then shout after the guy using the microphone. Guy climbs into his large 4×4, unclear if he’s heard them or not and drives off.

Cashier furrows brow and checks with me how much fuel I reckon I was paying for then tells me the disappearing chap had filled his vehicle with nearly twice as much. Not sure what I’m meant to do with that information. Cashier and manager confer and do something with the till so I can pay for my fuel.

Struck me afterwards – do people do this as a form of theft? Go to pay, give a different pump number, if it’s lower than what you actually take just pay that and skedaddle with lower-cost fuel on the basis that should the garage bother pursuing you it can just be explained away as a mistake?

Guy was wearing golf clobber and his 4×4 was a pretty expensive one. Still, appearances and all that.

Weird or commonly-known criminal tactic?

It’ll be on CCTV but probably criminals with cloned plates

Similar happened to me but the other way round.

It’ll be on CCTV but probably criminals with cloned plates

Surely in that case you would just sod off rather than paying at all?
If you are paying then either its with your own card in which case it can be easily traced to you or if it is a dodgy card then why do you care?

Stolen card too?

Was yours under £45?

Was yours under £45?

It was, hadn’t considered that.

Mistake by the other driver is as likely an explanation as anything else. Very common, swiftly resolved 9 times out of 10.

If picked up on… pay remaining balance on the card… also under £45.

the chap who’s just walked out the door has paid for that

do something with the till so I can pay for my fuel

Right that you paid, but an interesting what-if: given the other guy paid for the fuel you put in your car, are you legally required to pay for it too?

Are you sure he wasn’t just doing the motoring version of buying you a drink?
😉

Right that you paid, but an interesting what-if: given the other guy paid for the fuel you put in your car, are you legally required to pay for it too?

Good question and interesting to know the legal/consumer position on that. The fuel has been paid for so you are free to go as doesn’t matter who pays for the fuel as long as it has been ‘cleared’

A guy with a legal obligation to the garage paid them some money. I think the law will asume that to be a payment in full or partial discharge of their obligation. Had the other guy said “I am feeling generous I want to pay for the guy at pump no. 6” that might make a difference (but might not). The fact that they either lied or were mistaken about the amount they owed isn’t enough to turn it into a gift to someone else.

If the card was stolen surely he’d not put in more than £45…

Sounds like a mistake more than anything sinister.

Ive generally got a fairly accurate idea of how much fuel ive put in the car, think I’d notice if I filled it up and it cost less than £45, especially if was a big SUV.

I’m calling it a mistake. More often than not I have no idea how much fuel I’ve put in or what my pump no is. I generally let the cashier decide for me. Seems to work ok.

If the card was stolen surely he’d not put in more than £45…

Contact less limit is 45.

And I do have a couple of large 4×4’s – but absolutely NO golf clobber 😀

Who was it who said, never attribute to malice, what can be explained away by stupidity?

I worked in a petrol station as a student…the sh*t people used to pull was eye watering.

Highlights include the car full of youths that used silver foil to hide their plates…that was pretty obvious. They didn’t like it when they were rumbled. We had cars with stolen plates, we had traveller invasions, people fighting, mad locals, attempted robberies…you name it!

Sounds like a mistake more than anything sinister.

I’m inclined to this. Folks can be away in their own world sometimes, hand over card push in PIN, probably didn’t even look ate the amt. on the receipt.

I never look at the cost either. Insert nozzle, squeeze the trigger and deliberately look away from the rapidly increasing cost. Remove nozzle after second click.
I also pay at the pump though, so much more convenient.
OP sounds like a genuine mistake to me.

Contactless is way more than 45 quid>

I,ve paid around £130 with it so far.
Sounds like a simple mistake rather than some gansta crim job.

Apple Pay is unlimited, but actual contactless is limited to £45.

As above, the same happened to me but I was the beneficiary.

At a busy station I’ve also moved off to allow a following car to take my spot. The cashier asked me for £20 so I said I was the fill before that.

Honest mistake I expect – they happen.

I’m in the genuine mistake camp too.

You’d have to find your victim car carefully – finishing filling, have filled less than you, not paid yet and far enough back in the queue for it not to be noticed until you had left.

Also – to make it worth your while you’d have to pull it off a lot – and given the fact that your know you are on cctv and you are paying with a card it’s all going to hook up way before it made a substantial difference to your wealth.

No care needed.

“Pump 6 please”
“That’s £100”
“Oh, sorry it’s the 4×4”
“That’s pump 4, £80 please”

Scenario 2
“Pump 6 please”
“That’s £40”
Beep. <Install tannoy deafness app>

No care needed.

“Pump 6 please”
“That’s £100”
“Oh, sorry it’s the 4×4”
“That’s pump 4, £80 please”

Scenario 2
“Pump 6 please”
“That’s £40”
Beep. <Install tannoy deafness app>

It does rely on the victim car being finished fueling, not yet paid, and these days, not paying at pump.
You can always get out of it by playing the fool and apologising, but the percentage of times it would actually work?

@Paul-B i too worked in a petrol station in my late teens/early 20’s whilst being a student. Tesco in Bognor Regis. As you say, the amount of crazy stuff seen or experienced was pretty immense.

There is a caravan park next to the site, so it was always fun to see people walk out of the bushes onto the forecourt whilst puffing away on a fag. Drive off’s from time to time, printed £5 notes, underage kids looking for fags, people driving down the dual carriage way the wrong way as their reserve light came on at the end of the road…..

Contact less limit is 45.

I was going to fill up at Costco the other day but realised I didn’t have my card (they don’t do contactless for fuel) so went to Sainsbury’s and put £106 in and paid with my phone.
….. Or is it different when paying by phone?

I’m going with stupidity too – the options to actually get it to work and make it worthwhile are fairly limited and you’d need to get pretty lucky to fill up with £60 of fuel and then get away with paying for a car that had only got £15.

Had it the other way round at a supermarket a few years ago, Filled up (it was the works van) and then to pay, you had to drive out past a kiosk. Handed card over, the two women inside the kiosk were chatting away and barely said a word to me, beeped the company card, drove off.

Anyway a couple of weeks later, a letter arrived informing the company that the van registered ot them was flagged with ANPR for fuel theft. A subsequent investigation on everyone driving recently lead back to me. Found the fuel receipt, they’d charged me £10 instead of about £30. The stupid bint in the kiosk had been so busy chatting to her mate that she’d taken for the wrong pump.

Sorted it out with the supermarket but managed to get a substantial discount due to their error.

….. Or is it different when paying by phone?

Yes. If paying by Apple Pay, for example, the limit if £450 (from memory). It is linked to your account and is not the same as using a contactless card.
Clearly the level of security is different, on iPhone you have to use fingerprint after authenticating you card on setting up. On contactless you could just find/steal someones card and use it.

Mate used to manage a petrol station.

It could be a scam, but it could also be 4X4 guy making a mistake.

I say it could be a scam as the police won’t act – CCTV will reaveal 4X4 guy made a ‘reasonable attempt to pay’ i.e. he walked in and handed his card over to pay, and a transaction did take place. Ultimatley the petrol station will just have to write it up as a loss.

Yes. If paying by Apple Pay, for example, the limit if £450 (from memory).

I thought it was limitless, but I did get refused trying to pay a multiple hundred pound hotel bill the other week.

Actual credit card (the one linked to Apple Pay) was of course buried deep in my suitcase that I had to unpack at the front desk.

I’ve actually driven off without paying (I know – string me up from the nearest yardarm!). I got to the cashier and she mentioned something about my snack purchases that threw my train of thought. I was about ten miles down the road when I suddenly thought “Shit! I didn’t pay for the diesel!”. Turned round and went back. Fortunately for me they’d been so busy that they hadn’t had time to call the police so I paid up and went on my way.

I’ve also had the filling station try to pull a fast one: filled up, value of fuel something like £42.50. Get to the cashier and it’s “£42.50 please”, “Err, it was £41.50”. After a bit of arguing I paid £41.50. The rules are that the monitoring equipment has to show the value dispensed up until the point you pay, I think this is the same as any Point of Sale equipment. This guy had cleared it before I got there so there wasn’t the evidence to support my side of things.

Another – working in a garage as a student – story.

Guy pulls into an empty forecourt at about 11:30 at night on the pump furthest away from the kiosk. Suspicious I thought so I watched him filling his Nova which would have taken about £20 max to fill. The clock ticked up to £30 and I hit the stop button.
He looked confused and waved at the pump.
I looked innocent, shrugged and beckoned him over.
We repeating this silent charade for a minute or two when a police car turned up and I waved them furiously at the other car. They stopped in front of it and grabbed the man. He had a special boot tank fitted that took about £100 of fuel at a time. Apparently I was the 3rd garage in Portsmouth he had hit that night filling the tank and then driving off without paying

I’ve had it the other way, I reckon its a common mistake.

Hi Pump 4 please… (should be £80ish)

Oh, that man has just paid for it.

How much was his fuel?

£40…

OK well I”ll just pay for his then?

Erm… OK?!

I’m going with stupidity too – the options to actually get it to work and make it worthwhile are fairly limited and you’d need to get pretty lucky to fill up with £60 of fuel and then get away with paying for a car that had only got £15.

Not really, fill ruddy great 4×4 with massive tank, give the pump number for the smart car that, assuming the fuel isn’t spilling out of their windows, can’t possibly have taken a bigger fill than your humvee.

On the odd occasion you get it wrong you just mea culpa straight away.

I’m with scam, not a chance you put 80 of fuel in and don’t realise something is adrift when it comes to less than half. Sure I don’t look at the read any harder than anyone else but I know roughly what a tank costs.

Also – to make it worth your while you’d have to pull it off a lot – and given the fact that your know you are on cctv and you are paying with a card it’s all going to hook up way before it made a substantial difference to your wealth

Not really, you’d have to do it regularly at the same station before it is likely to be picked up, if you’re filling up a few times a week you could be into the tune of a 500-1grand a month.