Cooking Oil Thefts

Hello all

We've had a couple of reports in relation to cooking oil thefts from businesses.

Some might think 'who cares about a bit of used cooking oil being stolen?

Well, the responsible disposal of used cooking oil is big business and many businesses from takeaways to pubs to sports venues or whatever the business is that uses cooking oil in relatively large quantities normally have a contract with a reputable firm who collect it weekly/monthly and this is being exploited by criminals who turn up normally in the early hours with their vans which are normally greasy and battered (no pun intended!) and steal the oil.

The oil is then taken to a location where it is used for such things like producing ‘unregulated’ bio diesel and bio fuel and the money made feeds into Organised Criminal Gangs.

So although on the face of it used cooking oil is viewed as a waste product to the vast majority, it is actually a valuable resource to the criminals.

As I said it's normally vans that are used in the thefts which quite often are uninsured and not roadworthy and the thieves driving them sometimes don't have a licence therefore, it's really important that these thefts are reported to us via the Kent police website online reporting tool or 999 if the theft is in progress.

To business owners, please try and make your outside storage areas as secure as possible with at least one CCTV camera covering where the oil is stored and if possible a camera where the thieves would park their van so we can identify it. Also check your waste oil regularly especially if its a fortnightly or monthly collection because if a theft has taken place it will probably go unnoticed for a while.

So just a recap, it's normally a van of some description, quite often look tatty and the thieves will often wear hi-vis vests/jackets to make them look legitimate and more often than not the thefts will take place in the early hours between 02:00-06:00 roughly speaking but could happen outside of these hours obviously.

Thank you

Steve.