West Midlands motorists fail to pay at pump 22,000 times

This figure includes more than 8,000 drive-offs - known as bilking - in the last two years.

Aside from Birmingham, which had 8,785 in the last five years, Sandwell was the worst region in the West Midlands for petrol theft with 3,110.

There were also 2,839 drive-offs in Dudley, 1,998 in Wolverhampton and 1,592 in Walsall.

Other areas included on the freedom of information request were Coventry with 2,458 drive-offs and Solihull with 2,839.

A total of 13 petrol thefts, or petrol station drive-offs, were recorded as being from an unknown local policing unit.

West Midlands Police said that most 'crimes of this nature' happen when cars are 'using false plates'. They said they were working hard to prevent licence plate theft, and that people need to be clear that petrol theft has 'very serious' consequences.

Spokesman Lee Page said: "People need to be clear that driving off without paying for fuel is theft and the consequences are very serious.

"While encouraging businesses to take steps to minimise the likelihood of them becoming a victim – such as operating a pre-pay policy and installing good quality CCTV ? we are also working hard to prevent licence plates being stolen by fitting anti-theft screws, as most crimes of this nature happen with cars using false plates.

"We also routinely share images of fuel theft suspects on our Flickr and Facebook pages so that people can help us track down offenders so that we can bring them before the courts.

"Anyone who witnesses any suspicious activity on a petrol station forecourt, or has information that would be of interest to police should call 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."`

In 2010/11 there were 5,276 drive-offs from petrol stations in the West Midlands. This decreased to 4,852 in 2011-12 and to a lowly 3,670 in 2012-13, but has risen again since then.

In 2013/14 there were 4,052 drive-offs and this has increased again to 4,728 last year (2014-15).

In Sandwell the number of petrol thefts has increased year-on-year, with 570 in 2010-11 and a whopping 751 last year.

A different freedom of information request revealed earlier this year that the most frequently hit stations in Wolverhampton are Sainsbury's, Morrisons, BP, Shell and Tesco Express, including those on Cannock Road and Lichfield Road.

But despite this, the number of petrol thefts in Wolverhampton has almost halved in the last five years.

Dudley has seen a slight decrease while Walsall has seen a slight increase in the number of petrol station drive-offs since 2010.