Filling stations to collect thieves’ numbers

10 May 2004

AMSTERDAM — To combat theft of petrol at filling stations, industry association BOVAG said on Monday it will this week establish an online registry to collect the number plate details of thieving motorists.

BOVAG will also compile identification details of non-payers in expectation of changes to the nation’s privacy laws, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Once the law is changed, several debt collectors will be allowed access to the name and address of petrol thieves to collect the unpaid bills. Of the 4,236 petrol stations in the Netherlands, about 2,000 of them are BOVAG members.

Petrol stations will be able to pass on the number plate details to BOVAG. Via a link on the association’s website, it is hoped that petrol stations will also be able in future to make contact with debt collection agencies that BOVAG deals with. The site is being developed in co-operation with police.

The move comes as BOVAG said on Monday that a joint study with police had indicated that an increasing number of petrol stations are being held up or vandalised, Radio Netherlands reported.

The annual damage amounts to about EUR 18 million and the most common crimes are filling up without paying, shoplifting and property damage.

But BOVAG also identified a so-called “hold-up game”. The new phenomenon involves holding up a petrol station as a sort of initiation rite among teenagers.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news