A gang of petrol thieves in Edinburgh have been targeting cars in a popular suburb - as local garage owners warn fuel theft is on the rise.
Several garage owners in the Leith area have warned customers after seeing more than a dozen incidents this year alone, while one claimed she'd never seen anything like it in 25 years.
One local was cruelly targeted while her dad was in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh getting a major heart operation, leaving her to fork out £500 for a hire car during an already stressful time.
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Linzi Leroy, 49, was on her way to the hospital to visit her dad on Friday, July 9 when she found she unexpectedly needed petrol. She didn't discover there was an issue until dangerous fuel came gushing out her vehicle on the forecourt.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Linzi said: "I was going to the hospital to see my dad who was in for triple bypass surgery, when I got in my car I was surprised I had no petrol and drove to a nearby fuel station.
"When I was filling it on the forecourt, fuel was pouring out from underneath onto the floor around the car which could have been really dangerous if someone was nearby with a cigarette."
She continued: "My local garage Dalzhiels told us we should go through insurance and report it as a crime so I lost my car for a couple of weeks while it got fixed and had to spend around £500 on a hire car to pick my dad up from the hospital and bring him home so it has been very stressful.
"The whole thing has been really bad timing and we haven't heard anything back from the police yet."
Nicky Walker, 46, who owns Dalziel's MOT and Servicing Centre told Edinburgh Live: "It has happened to three of our customers so far, I have been here 25 years and I have never seen anything like it, but fuel is so expensive.
"People used to cypher fuel using a tube but they can't do that anymore because of fuel cap locks so drilling holes into petrol tanks.
"Petrol tanks would need to be replaced to fix it - when it happened to one of our customers it would have cost £1200, so we told him to go through his insurance as it's a lot of money to pay for something that wasn't your fault."
Her husband and business partner Mark Walker, added: "It’s happened three times in the last three weeks, two times they have gone in and realised they needed fuel then driven to a petrol station started filling up and had petrol pouring out all over the forecourt.
"You are talking about anywhere from £500 to fix it, it’s so they can drain the car of fuel.
"They have got to be careful if they are driving to a garage. , for us to have three in the last two weeks is unheard of. Usually, we only get one case every couple of years. We have left it up to the customers to contact the police about it."
Nearby Bonnington Mill Garage has also seen a spate of petrol tank drilling incidents and has also been shocked at the increase in fuel theft in the area.
Steven Glover said: "It's unheard of, I haven't come across people drilling to steal fuel in years since it happened at an old dealership I worked at where one night they broke in and drilled holes in eight brand new cars' tanks which cost a lot to fix but gave us plenty of work to do.
"There is definitely an increase in incidents.
"We have had a few incidents this year already, I know Dalziehls has had three and another garage nearby has had a couple. We were really shocked at the precision of the holes that have been drilled.
"It happened in one Vauxhall Corsa which would be very difficult to do if you didn't have extensive knowledge about the cars as there is only one spot next to a ridge on the tank that you could drill to get petrol out without spilling it everywhere.
"They know exactly where to drill which is very peculiar, it's a specific place, not many people would know and a quick job with a drill.
"It's almost surgical, we were surprised at the expertise behind it - they would have been in and out in seconds."
Police Scotland was approached for comment but did not have any information on the increase in incidents.
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