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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 10/09/2002 6:43:59 AM PDT by dighton
A special police unit nicknamed the “frying squad” has been formed in a market town where hundreds of drivers are believed to be running their diesel cars on cooking oil.
Sniffing out unusually fragrant exhaust fumes, highway patrols have already collared several dozen offenders, who save more than 40p a litre by diverting oil from the kitchen cupboard to under the bonnet.
The Asda supermarket in Llanelli, south Wales, has slapped a ration on cooking oil sales, after astonished internal auditors found that it was selling far more than any other outlet in the country. Customs investigators are also involved in the “sniff patrols”, which home in on any car smelling like a mobile fish and chip shop.
“It’s a serious offence,” said Bill O’Leary, spokesman for customs and excise, which levies tax on motor oil but not on the version used in saucepans. “By law, all cars on public roads must pay a tax on the fuel they use. Evasion carries a maximum seven-year jail term.”
According to one victim of the crackdown, who did not want to be named, substituting 32p-a-litre cooking oil, with a dash of methanol, worked as sweetly in his diesel Subaru as the real, 73p-a-litre thing.
But the tell-tale odour proved his undoing when an unmarked police car flagged him down. “The officer went to the fuel tank, dipped it, and found cooking oil. I put my hands up to the offence but the car was towed away,” he said. His oil savings vanished in a £500 fine for using illegal, untaxed fuel and £150 required as a towing fee.
Dyfed Powys police said they were working with customs on a stop-and-check basis because of the problem in Llanelli. While Asda limited cooking oil sales per customer, an AA spokeswoman said fry-driving “could severely damage your vehicle. You should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions about which fuel to use”.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
They did pay tax on the fuel. The excessive sales taxes that are charged in GB.
If I'm not mistaken, it's recycled somehow, not discarded.
......into mcnuggets & special sauce
How about this one.....Filling up your airplane is a doozy. When fueling up your airplane, avgas is thick with those same "highway taxes" as cars. Airplanes don't exact a lot of wear and tear on the highways. You can file to get your highway portions back at tax time though. It costs me $300.00 to fill my tanks. About $100 of that is highway use taxes. Jet A costs about a buck a gallon but is not dyed for highway use if you get caught. It is cleaner than highway diesel, and you can get it with Prist which is a biocide which is nice for tank and fuel line cleanliness. If you have any avaiation buddy's, it is a good buy. I get most of mine by using the fuel from drained tanks from maintenance jobs. Fuel drained from tanks cannot legally put back into bulk tanks for resale. Draining a King Air or Hawker or Falcon into some 55 gallon drums can keep you rolling quite some time. Those planes need to be empty weighed for weight and balance purposes on a regular basis too.
While Asda limited cooking oil sales per customer, an AA spokeswoman said fry-driving “could severely damage your vehicle.
A complete crock, particularly in comparison to the aldulterated EPA Diesel fuel they sell now. BioDiesel is cheap to make, and returns the lubricity lost from low sulfur fuels (actually exceeds non EPA Diesel fuel). It is probably a lot cheaper than the additives we put in the tank to achieve the same thing now.
The Europeans have to wake up sometime.
You don't get it. In Britain, every single last damn gallon of gasoline has about $3 of tax added on to the normal price, making it about 4.50 a gallon or so.
Now how many gallons of fuel do you put in your car on an average fill-up?
I'm glad to see that the Boston Tea Party is completely forgotten by the British rulers.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Again anyone think that "The police are on our side?"
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