Rural householders have been warned by police to be vigilant after a rise of heating oil tanks thefts from gardens.

The price of the fuel has risen by 70% in recent months and criminals are said to be using increasingly sophisticated tactics to target isolated homes.

Police have advised homeowners to fit padlocks on their tanks and consider installing alarms.

More than 1.5m homes across the UK, mostly in rural areas, are dependent on heating oil.

The increase in the price of the oil and the isolated nature of many of the homes has made them an easy target for thieves.

David Hamilton, a pensioner who had £500 worth of oil stolen from a tank outside his home, said it “doesn’t take much” for an isolated person to get cold without fuel and heating before going “over the edge” towards hypothermia.

Ian Johnson, of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), said thieves “will do anything to steal fuel”.

He said anecdotal evidence suggests they are using increasingly sophisticated tactics, “including watching the depots, following the lorries, seeing where [fuel] is delivered and helping themselves to the contents”.

Insurers say the average claim for such a theft is more than £2,000, although Mr Johnson warned that “some insurers don’t cover that”

The BBC’s Louise Hubbal said: “Police say that the oil is being sold on and can even be used in diesel cars.”

Article from the BBC New UK website, 28th January 2011.

Below are a couple of products that can help prevent thieves from stealing heating oil from your home.

Titan WatchmanAlarm

The revolutionary electronic measuring guage which will set off an alarm at the receiver in the house when there is a dramatic drop in oil levels. It can also monitor your oil heating levels all year round, giving you peace of mind that you won’t run out and the chance to keep a check on your oil consumption patterns.

* One model fits all
* Quick and easy to install
* Suitable for steel or plastic tanks
* 12 months replacement guarantee
* Low power consumption
* 200 metre transmitter to receiver range
* Measures tanks up to 3 metres in height
* Option of an audible setting sending out a buzzing one when oil levels run low

Titan Watchmansonic
Monitor your oil heating levels all year round, giving you peace of mind that you won’t run out and the chance to keep a check on your oil consumption patterns.

* One model fits all
* Quick and easy to install
* Suitable for steel or plastic tanks
* 12 months replacement guarantee
* Low power consumption
* 200 metre transmitter to receiver range
* Measures tanks up to 3 metres in height
* Option of an audbile setting sending out a buzzing one when oil levels run low

Flavel today manufactures and distributes a huge range of Flavel gas fires and Flavel electric fires. However, the Flavel company started out in a very different line of business.
Of Norman origin, the original Flavel family came over to England with William the Conqueror and lived at various periods in their history in London, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, and latterly Warwickshire.

In the mid-seventeenth century William Flavel had set up a business manufacturing gunpowder and armories in Bilton, Warwickshire; a very prosperous operation largely due to the fact that we were often in conflict with any number of nations at any given time around this period.

In 1777 new premises were acquired in what was then a small, but rapidly growing village called Leamington, a place that would ultimately become a prosperous health resort in Regency days. Among the many inventions that were patented by the company was a vapour bath; made initially for members of the Russian aristocracy.

In 1833 the business was re-located to its present site, the Eagle Foundry, in order to take advantage of the transport benefits offered by the construction of the Grand Junction Canal which ran alongside the premises, and the branch line which was connected to the factory linking it with the Great Western Railway.

It was, however, the “Patent Kitchener” which brought the company to real prominence. The first real cooking appliance to supersede the open ‘fire and spit’, the Kitchener was displayed at the Great Exhibition held at “Crystal Palace” in 1851. Some 19,000 exhibitors were represented at the Exhibition but only 17 Prize Medals with special approbation were granted and Flavel’s Kitchener received one of these; just one of numerous subsequent awards that the Company received right up to the time of the Great Paris Exhibition of 1937.

Flavel continued to manufacture cast-iron cooking appliances well into the 1930’s and were pioneers in introducing the first appliance to be finished throughout in porcelain enamel in 1936, resulting in a further avalanche of awards from Exhibitions all over the world.

Flavel was always recognized as being an innovative company and having had a relatively minor presence in the gas fires market in 1965 they introduced the first ever furniture fire with a wood surround – the Debonair.

Over the next 6 years this gas fire totally revolutionized the market and a phenomenal one and a half million were sold; a success that it is most unlikely to ever be repeated.

In more recent times the company continued to trade as Sidney Flavel and Co. until 1974 when it was absorbed into the Glynwed Group which was subsequently broken up in 1998 and the Flavel brand was transferred to Agafoodservice Group.

The heating sector of the market held little interest for Agafoodservices and the Flavel brand and property rights was acquired by BFM Europe (formally CFM Europe) in 2002, since which time the Flavel name has been resurrected and regenerated and has become recognized as a major and highly significant supplier of gas and electric products to the heating market.