"One drive-off is basically … your profit for the day gone," petrol station owner John Arbuckle says.

Customers driving off with petrol, creating elaborate sob stories and being abusive to staff is causing petrol station owners and workers to take action.

John Arbuckle owns two Mobils in Christchurch. He has someone stealing petrol from his stations every second day.

Since the beginning of 2018 up until May 31, there have been 6872 theft-related offences at service stations throughout New Zealand. During the same stretch of time in 2017, petrol station thefts totalled 5535.

Drive-offs have a significant effect, Arbuckle said.

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"One drive-off is basically … your profit for the day gone," Arbuckle said.

"You think what's the point, I'm not making anything out of it, I might as well go back and do something else."

GEORGE HEARD/STUFF Mark Nicholl who owns three Challenge petrol stations in Canterbury said staff take anything valuable to ensure petrol take-offs didn't happen.

Petrol prices have been increasing nationwide.

Arbuckle said as the price of petrol increases so does the frequency of petrol thefts.

"Our policy is if people put fuel into their vehicle and can't pay for it, as far as we're concerned the vehicle doesn't leave the site until the fuel has been paid for."

Prepaid machines were being turned on in the early hours of the morning and were available to be used at all times of the day, Arbuckle said.

"Unless you go full prepaid 24 hours a day there's no way of preventing it and all that does is p--- off most of your customers."

Mark Nicholl owns three petrol stations in Canterbury. He said the type of offending is changing.

"[Drive offs] used to be the most common thing that happened, they'd just gas it out the gate but a hell of a lot of people now come to the counter and make out like they're going to pay for it."

He said people play on the staff's kindness and trustworthiness with people attempting to leave without paying at all of his stations daily.

STUFF Petrol station owners throughout New Zealand have daily petrol thefts.

One out of every 10 people will come back and pay for the petrol, he said.

Drive offs tended to be less frequent, with about two a month.

People will make up any variation of stories to get out of paying. Stories about loved ones in hospital, unexpected bills and insurance payouts are among those told to staff on a daily basis.

"Any story you can think of I've heard it and to a degree they're believable."

Nicholl said the petrol station would attempt to take anything of value from the customer until they return.

"If you make it too easy they won't pay you. We'll put the pressure on them, we'll take a kid, a dog, anything."

Customers often get abusive and on one occasion, Nicholl had someone swing punches at him.

He will attempt to track down those who have not paid for the petrol and if they do not pay up they will be trespassed.

"Every one is the same and it gets quite heated at times. I really struggle with who is honest. It is frustrating and it is not easy."

The only way petrol thefts can be stopped was to use prepaid pumps but if all petrol stations are not using prepaid it would deter customers, he said.

"If we were all pre-paying like they do in the States or in parts of the North Island that would stop it dead in its tracks."

Canterbury metro area manager Senior Sergeant Paul Reeves said there were many preventative measures petrol station workers could use to mitigate petrol thefts.

Number plate recognition technology on surveillance cameras, identifying "at risk pumps" and having more workers on the forecourt were among the main ways service stations could protect themselves.

Owners need to ensure staff are fully trained to identify possible offenders, he said.