Petrol thieves strike during transport strike

Petrol thieves strike during transport strike

    Two men have been accused of theft and criminal damage in court number two in Vera.

    The men were seen in the small hours of the morning in one of the side streets of the town by local police in Cuevas de Almanzora, one day during the transport strike which closed most local petrol stations. The men, when they realised they had been spotted, tried to hide between the parked cars whilst at the same time hiding containers beneath the cars. Whilst checking the men's identification the police officers noticed a strong smell of petrol and discovered five containers with different quantities if petrol in each of them. When questioned about where the petrol came from the men were evasive and behaved nervously. As the men could not demonstrate their ownership of the fuel the police confiscated what was later measured as 34 litres of petrol.    

    Later the same morning three residents of Cuevas reported to the Guardia Civil the theft of petrol from their cars while parked in streets close to where the men had been stopped. As a result the two men were arrested as the presumed authors of the three counts of theft as well as for the damage occasioned to the vehicles in order to extract the fuel. A date has been set for their trial.