Scots chef 'almost run over' pursuing van of slippery oil thieves as crooks target takeaways

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A pair of slippery thieves have snatched valuable cooking oil from a popular Ayr takeaway putting businesses on high alert.

Tempura 2go fell victim to the brazen crooks as the price of operating in the hospitality industry has rocketed.The shady duo helped themselves to a stash of used cooking oil worth around £130 when they swooped in on the Beresford Terrace takeaway on Tuesday.Chefs at the eatery were confronted by the pair who claimed they were there to collect the cooking oil.But after being caught out as imposters, the pair separated with one rushing into the van and the other fleeing with the goods on foot.A dramatic chase saw the chef track down the thief outside the Odeon cinema but he was cut off by the van driver, with the thief then jumping into the car.The suspects have been described as young Asian men in their mid to late 20s, driving a white Transit Van.It is understood the crooks are trying to steal the oil to make bootleg petrol.Tempura co-owner Brandon Van Rensburg has told of the oil was due to be collected by a firm Oilico who recycle the food waste and use it to create fuel.

The funds from the oil collection are then used to purchase more oil from Oilico, who also supply the chain which has a sit-in restaurants in Ayr and one in Kilmarnock.Brandon told Ayrshire Live: “Two of our chefs were outside having a chat.“They noticed someone picking up the oil, one of them just looked up.“We use Oilico who usually collect our old oil, the chefs realised ‘that’s not them’ and that something dodgy was going on. “The guy in the van drove off, the other guy just ran with what we had.“One of the chefs chased him all the way to the Odeon, he tried to block the van and he was nearly run over.