This article is from page 55 of the 2011-06-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 55 JPG
THE theft of diesel and home heating oil is happening in Clare “on a daily basis” it has been claimed.
A West Clare haulier, who contacted The Clare People after reading reports last week about the thefts says he has personally lost more than € 2,000 worth of diesel, “and I can tell you, I know more than 40 other people who have had fuel stolen in large amounts. One driver I know, they bored a hole in the tank of his tr uck to steal fuel.”
The haulier – who asked not to be named in case it marks him out for further thefts – said he has “gone to ever y length to keep fuel safe. I have to have fuel for the tr uck. I had locks on the shed where I keep it, locks on the gate leading to the shed. They just cut them open.”
The West Clare man said that he has reported the thefts to the gardaí but many of his fellow drivers have stopped reporting such thefts.
“They don’t see the point. No-one is caught for these crimes and if they are, they walk away. There was a man in court a few weeks ago, caught red-handed by the gardaí stealing diesel in Shannon and all that happened was that he was given the Probabtion Act.”
The driver said that he believes that stealing home heating oil and other types of fuel “is not an opportunistic crime. These are ver y organised criminals. They drive round in vans with containers and syphoning equipment in the back. If they’re stopped by the guards all they have to say is they were syphoning fuel from their own tanks.”
Angr y at the loss of his own fuel, the haulier told The Clare People that he has “been doing some investigating into this myself. What some of them are doing is taking the stolen heating oil up to Galway and selling it to students.”
Gardaí had confirmed that they are investigating a number of reported thefts of fuel around the county.