Motorists hitting the road for the Anzac Day long weekend are being urged to help authorities with the final stretch of a statewide crackdown on dodgy service stations by reporting everything from false prices to missing signage.
More than 2300 petrol stations have been visited by NSW Fair Trading since the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intensified its monitoring of malpractice and price gouging in early March.
Since then, the NSW government has issued more than 210 fines, about 70 per cent of which have been in regional areas.
However, with only about 70 retailers yet to be checked, predominantly in the state’s far west, the NSW government is calling on travellers to use Bowser Busters – a portal for reporting price mismatches – to help authorities finish the job.
Motorists have so far helped authorities crack down on dozens of service stations, including one in the NSW Snowy Mountains that was found to be displaying diesel at $3 per lite but advertising it as $1.96 per litre on the FuelCheck app.
In Walgett Shire, an inspection of a 24-hour unmanned service station found it was not displaying the required signage, while two service stations in the Upper Murray were found to be selling diesel without any signage.
NSW Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said that, with a robust reinspection regime targeting more than 750 stations, authorities were calling on motorists to help report outlets “taking them for a ride”.
“These inspection and compliance numbers show that as cost-of-living pressures ramp up, the Minns Labor government will not back down,” he said.
“My message to service stations remains clear: Do the wrong thing and you will be caught.”
NSW Fair Trading executive director of consumer affairs Andrew Floro said inspectors would continue operations targeting compliance ahead of the long weekend.
That would ensure “motorists travelling to regional and rural NSW can rely on FuelCheck when planning their journeys”, he said.
Data reveals compliance blitz
Service stations in the southern tablelands, south coast, central west, and Riverina reported the highest number of price mismatches.
More recently, stations in Cobar and Lake Cargelligo in the state’s west had been the most remote sites targeted by the latest compliance checks, with only about 70 retailers in neighbouring regions left on NSW Fair Trading’s radar.
Outlets found to have failed to meet their obligations face an on-the-spot fine of $1100, with court-enforced penalties of up to $110,00.
Since March, NSW Fair Trading staff have been conducting high-visibility, on-the-ground compliance operations across the state, from Manly to Moree.
The number of planned operations increased tenfold since before the Iran war, with more than 3300 on-site inspections taking place.
Many of those are reinspections, including in Sydney, the Central Coast, the Hunter Valley, Riverina, and Far West and Orana regions.
About 40 per cent of all penalty infringement notices were issued through the Bowser Buster portal, which allows motorists to report dodgy practices, including through the FuelCheck NSW app.
Of those, 88 were for price mismatches, which exceed the number of notices issued by on-the-ground inspectors.
About 80 per cent of all notices were issued for price mismatches.
The remainder were issued to service stations that had failed to comply with the information standard or were not registered on FuelCheck NSW.
The value of the infringement notices issued to date is about $230,000.
Extracted in full from: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/nsw-government-targets-final-70-service-stations-in-fuel-crackdown/news-story/66db49a07f50202298950c62fa42ef5c
