Crime statistics released on Monday by Victoria Police show that Victoria is seeing an increase in fuel theft, much like Sydney has recently experienced.

In the past year, petrol drive-off offences have increased by 41.6%, from 5,038 in 2004-05 to 7,135 in 2005-06. There has also been a large increase in number plate thefts, 31.9% in the past year. These thefts allow concealment of vehicle registration numbers during the commission of drive-off offenses.

Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, has said that new initiatives are being introduced to control the growing problem. "In particular we have recently introduced the 'safe plates' initiative which encourages the use of one-way screws on number plates", she said