By XAVIER SMERDON
A POLICE crackdown on one of Wyndham’s fastest rising crimes has seen a spate of people fined and two men arrested following a daring chase on foot.
Last week during a five day operation police were using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to nab drivers who had committed petrol drive-offs in the Wyndham area.
On Tuesday at around 1.45pm they scanned the plates of a Toyota Aurion travelling on Fairbairn Rd in Laverton North and were notified that the car had an expired registration.
Just as they were about to pull the vehicle over, the driver attempted to flee, speeding away from police.
But his escape was short lived as he slammed into the gutter of a roundabout, causing the front left tyre of the car to almost fly off and the front axle to be snapped in two.
As police caught up with the vehicle, the driver and his passenger, both aged in their early 20s, jumped out of the car and attempted to run away on foot.
They were quickly caught by police however, before the driver admitted that the car was stolen.
Leading Senior Constable Mick Campbell apprehended the passenger and told Star the car was believed to have been stolen out of the Central Square car park in Altona.
“As we put the lights on they’ve taken off before hitting the curb and snapping the axle,” Ldng Sen Const Campbell said.
“The doors then flew open and they split up. My partner chased the driver and I chased the passenger into the nearby park.”
Sergeant Mick Welsh said in December last year there had been 82 petrol drive-offs reported in Wyndham alone and so far in 2014 there had been a 13.5 per cent reported increase in the crime.
“The petrol drive-offs are pushing our reports of theft up,” Sgt Welsh said.
“We see them a fair bit, but today is a good result because no one was injured and we’ve got two people in custody.”
A staff member at a Laverton petrol station who did not want to be identified told Star that petrol drive-offs were almost a daily occurrence.
“Sometimes the people come back because they just forgot to pay for it, but most of the time it’s people stealing something they don’t think they should have to pay for, even though everyone else does,” the staff member said.
Police Inspector Damien Christensen told Star number plate thefts and vehicle thefts could be directly linked with the theft of petrol.
“It’s pretty much guaranteed that if your plates or your vehicle is stolen it’s being used for no good,” Insp Christensen said.
“A recent Vic Health survey found that Wyndham has the highest percentage of people commuting for two hours a day, 26.2 per cent, more than double the Victorian average of 11.6 per cent.
“Unfortunately this is a bit like a tsunami suburb. We have a big wave of vehicles leaving every day at about 8am and then returning at about 4 or 5pm, and that is a contributing factor to the rise of drive-offs.”
“It’s now getting to the point where people have got to think about putting one way screws on their number plates.”
