More than 1,000 drivers leave Sussex petrol stations without paying every year.

In 2010, 1,064 motorists drove-off without paying from a garage in Sussex, while 232 bilking incidents were reported in the first three months of this year.

The figure is a slight increase on the county-wide figure in 2009, although a drop from a high of almost 1,400 in 2008 when petrol prices first began to soar.

In Brighton and Hove, a motorist left a petrol station without paying every 36 hours last year.

Drive-off incidents in 2010 increased in eight of the 15 Sussex Police districts compared to 2009.

There were also 275 reported incidents of fuel being siphoned directly from other vehicles in Sussex in 2010, with 73 incidents already reported in the first three months of this year.

It is believed most fuel thefts are pre-planned and carried out by organised criminals because of the ease of tracking down legal vehicle owners with CCTV footage and automaticnumber plate recognition technology.

Andrew Howard, a public affairs spokesman for the AA, said 33 drivers would have to pass through a petrol station after every drive-off before the petrol station could recover the lost money.

He said: “This is a crime where the costs are borne by you and me.

“If a driver drives off with £70 of petrol that’s £70 the petrol station still has to pay for, and this can push up the cost at individual stations.”

Julian Taylor has been manager at the Texaco Garage in Lewes since 2006.

He says that, over a year, he would have to sell 60,000 litres of fuel just to cover the losses of drive-offs, and that the amount of money lost at his station has jumped £500 in the last year.

Even when bikers are caught, Mr Taylor said only four compensation orders were made ordering criminals to pay, and none had.