The police are acting like judge and jury around my neck of the woods.
They are stopping cars, vans, and lorries and checking for red diesel. If they can’t get anything out due to anti syphon equipment, They impound your vehicle.
It works out to around £500 for a van, and that’s even when they have had a mechanic take the tank out to find no red in there.
Since when was this a police issue? I thought it was a customs thing.
I would have thought that they have no right to impound a vehicle just because it has anti syphon equipment fitted, after all, it is a crime prevention measure,
any mechanic can draw diesel at the injectors or pump…
if they can’t figure that, tell them to get lost…
Gets them out the office while the suns out
I was never stopped, not a problem on my old 405 the original filling neck was blanked off and contained a couple of liters of the clear stuff, the claret went into a separate filler in the boot, tidy!
I believe that legally the onus is on the driver to be able to ‘furnish a sample when required’ (remind you of anything?)
NB: who remembers a huge fuss a couple of years ago when a well-known truck filling station in the midlands was raided and HMCE alleged they were selling kerosene as while diesel (at white diesel prices)? Does anyone know is anyone was prosecuted as a result?
Go on Mike ya crafty.
limeyphil:
The police are acting like judge and jury around my neck of the woods.
They are stopping cars, vans, and lorries and checking for red diesel. If they can’t get anything out due to anti syphon equipment, They impound your vehicle.
It works out to around £500 for a van, and that’s even when they have had a mechanic take the tank out to find no red in there.
Since when was this a police issue? I thought it was a customs thing.
They must be bored and got nothing to do!I always understood the onus was on the enforcement agency to obtain a sample to show the vehicle was running on rebated fuel, no sample no offence, the reason C&E have the high top vans with test equipment is so they can prove an offence has been commited and take further action,the police may well be liable if acting illegally(are you sure this is not a wind up or RDC talk?)
mike68:
I was never stopped, not a problem on my old 405 the original filling neck was blanked off and contained a couple of liters of the clear stuff, the claret went into a separate filler in the boot, tidy!
and if caught gets a harsher fine 
Nothing to do with the Police unless they are supporting HMRC plus the Police only have power without prior notice to inspect a vehicle if it’s suspected of being involved in an accident at least for cars
I’m not too sure about commercial vehicles though I challenged the cops once in a car which they wanted to check and after a call to their superiors they backed off 
ladder49:
Nothing to do with the Police unless they are supporting HMRC plus the Police only have power without prior notice to inspect a vehicle if it’s suspected of being involved in an accident at least for cars
I’m not too sure about commercial vehicles though I challenged the cops once in a car which they wanted to check and after a call to their superiors they backed off
Not true.
Most if not all Police forces have patrols issued with testing kits & have done for a number of years.
IME they’re very reluctant to use them though, like the roadside breathalyzer the result cannot be used in evidence.
If you fail the breath test roadside, then the real (evidential) test is back at a suitably equipped Police station & you’ll be whisked there within minutes. If you fail the red diesel dip, then the officer has to wait untill HMRC can attend, the vehicle can be detained but it cannot be seized (there is a difference) until an evidential check has been made by HMRC. It can take several hours for HMRC to attend, which is why most officers are reluctant to dip for red diesel.
ladder49:
Nothing to do with the Police unless they are supporting HMRC plus the Police only have power without prior notice to inspect a vehicle if it’s suspected of being involved in an accident at least for cars
I’m not too sure about commercial vehicles though I challenged the cops once in a car which they wanted to check and after a call to their superiors they backed off
NAH ,check out the tyne tunnel ,police and vosa are there every few months checking for red diesel in the trucks coming out of the tunnels ,usually have a ■■■■■ to hand as well to aid with the bypassing of anti syphoning measures 
If you read my post again it was talking about cars mostly and not trucks
ladder49:
If you read my post again it was talking about cars mostly and not trucks
It could be mostly about interstellar galactic spacecraft but it would still be wrong . . . Apart from a few words correctly spelt that is !
If the Police cannot ‘inspect’ a car outside of your fantasy, then we can all drive around on bald tyres with no fear until we have an accident.
mike68:
I was never stopped, not a problem on my old 405 the original filling neck was blanked off and contained a couple of liters of the clear stuff, the claret went into a separate filler in the boot, tidy!
two probs there
1 when dipped the diesel should be warm as its a constant flow that goes into the engine what s not used comes back to the tank thus making a cycle keeping the diesel warm
2 unless you refresh the diesel in the blanked off part after a while not sure of time it can go cloudy thus for someone in the know will know all not what it seems
I stand to be corrected
limeyphil:
Since when was this a police issue? I thought it was a customs thing.
The police are ring pieces, that’s the issue…!!!
This one is simple. Let the police do what they want, they will anyway, but as soon as they drop a pipe into your tank, call 999 and ask for the police to attend, saying;
“I wish to report a theft in progress!”
Was once asked by a police officer when stopped,for other reason,if I was running on red,he seemed happy enough when I answered ‘no’!
I will come clean here and admit to putting red in a truck once … Oh the shame 
It was 1987 and my DAF 95 was in the shop for the night, I had a loaner DAF 3300 for the night and when I got in the cab there was just above a 1/4 tank of fuel, we used to stop en-route from MK to Bridgewater at Swindon for fuel but this night when we got there they had run out 
The others had over 3/4 in their tanks but I was up the creek without a paddle. I phoned in and was told to carry on to Bridgewater and they would get fuel to me. On arrival they told me I would have to wait till next day for fuel unless I could get to the Bristol depot for fuel, “So we have a depot in Bristol and you let me drive past it ?” I asked. Stumped as the other guys drove off, with the exception on my running mate who sugested that we remove some red from the forklift supplt tank in the corner of the yard. 10 gallon was then removed from the afore mentioned tank and transfered to mine, we ran to Bristol and filled up. Nothing was ever said and I never saw that truck again.