SOARING petrol prices have contributed to a rise in crime in the Wycombe area and the district’s top cop says petrol stations are doing nothing to stop it.

Superintendent Gilbert Houalla says that garages ‘are happy’ to see fuel thefts happen because they know can pass the cost on to their customers.

He accused them of ignoring crime prevention advice and says they are partly responsible for the rising cost of fuel.

He told the Free Press petrol ‘bilking’ - taking fuel without paying - and car-related theft is the biggest contributor to crime in the district, as annual crime figures are released today.

The force recorded 61 bilking thefts in February and 57 in March, as fuel prices shot up and over the £1.34 mark. Number plate thefts were also on the rise.

The Wycombe District area commander believes the crime stats and inflated petrol prices are linked and hit out at petrol companies for ignoring the problem, saying stations use bilking to “pass the price on to the customer”.

He said: “The biggest contributor to our crime is car crime, by a mile. There’s a high turnover of bilking - a huge contributor to crime.

"A few months ago, petrol was 90-odd pence but its £1.34 now. If you travel long distances or rely on a lot of petrol, it becomes very attractive.

“There’s a distinct lack of interest from petrol stations in deterring crime, especially bilking, because they know they can pass the price onto the customers.

“There are companies out there who know they are being targeted for bilking, they know because we told them.

"Yet they are quite happy going on reporting it to us because they’re not losing anything, it’s going to the insurance company and going on the price of fuel.

"If they can do it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, why not do it to the local police?"

He added he did not think there was enough responsibility on the fuel companies to reduce crime.

He said: “How can you force them to put in better CCTV or ANPR - simple technology to prevent it?

"They are quite happy to let it happen, crime prevention is not in their mindset as they’ll just put the cost up.”

The force is to launch a crackdown on car crime, with decoy cars boasting cameras and tracking devices to be deployed around the district in a bid to catch thieves.

It has teamed up with Halfords to offer free number plate screws to residents. Teams from Halfords and TVP will be at Tesco Loudwater on April 8 and Asda in Booker on April 9 between 11am and 2pm to fit the screws.

Supt Houalla said: “Enough is enough. If we reduce car-related crime by 30 per cent, we’d be the best performing LPA in the country.”