‘I forgot to pay’: Victoria’s premier Ben Carroll drives off without paying for petrol, sparking police inquiries

Read the original at The Guardian ↗
Cite

correspondent, B. K. V. s. (2026, October 20). ‘I forgot to pay’: Victoria’s premier Ben Carroll drives off without paying for petrol, sparking police inquiries. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/21/i-forgot-to-pay-victorian-premier-ben-carroll-drove-off-with-paying-for-petrol-sparking-police-inquiries-ntwnfb

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-10-20 · by Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent

Quick Summary

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll admitted to driving off without paying for petrol at a service station near his home on Monday night. He rectified the situation by returning to pay the bill after being contacted by police through the Department of Parliamentary Services on Tuesday. The incident sparked discussions about whether such incidents should be treated as criminal offenses, with Victoria’s police commissioner Mike Bush suggesting they are typically civil matters unless proven otherwise intentionally.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-21, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll admitted to driving away from a service station without paying for petrol on Monday night. He revealed the mistake in a statement on Wednesday morning, saying he had already settled the bill with the gas station. The incident occurred while he was running errands near his home in Niddrie, after spending the evening responding to an alleged attack on federal MP Helen Haines in regional Victoria.

The police were alerted and contacted the Department of Parliamentary Services over the unpaid fuel, prompting a phone call to Carroll late Tuesday night. He promptly paid for the petrol once he realized his oversight. In his statement, Carroll expressed gratitude towards the service station staff for their understanding. No further action is expected to be taken in this matter.

Written for “Ben Carroll Petrol Incident” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 94953 · logged 2026-10-21

Story

📰 Ben Carroll Petrol Incident
Politics · 4 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Premier Ben Carroll admits driving off without paying for fuel after servo alerts police same event · 100%
Daily Mail · 0.86 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 14% hedged 1 of 7 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe Premier Ben Carroll admitting to driving off without paying for fuel at a petrol station on Monday night, with him fixing the bill the next day.”
Melbourne Assembly LIVE: First home buyers in Carroll’s sights as Labor pledges $1b election sweetener same event · 100%
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 3 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe Premier Ben Carroll driving off without paying for petrol at a service station on Monday night and subsequently paying up.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-21 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Who wrote this

Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent
7 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 No further action is expected to be taken.
2026-10-20 · assertive framing · ‘I forgot to pay’: Victoria’s premier Ben Carroll drives off without paying for petrol, sparking police inquiries
🔮 She said it would cost $136m over four years but admitted it was a “ballpark” figure that would depend on how many babies were born each year. “We don’t go hard on figures, because we actually don’t have access to the detail of this stuff,” Harkin told reporters.
2026-10-16 · assertive framing · One Nation proposes $2,000 baby subsidy in Victoria but says it won’t touch state abortion laws
🔮 Dave Hughes says he will no longer be taking the stage at Victorian Liberal events, claiming the party decided having him on the bill could run afoul of the state’s political donation laws.
2026-10-07 · assertive framing · Comedian Dave Hughes to stop speaking at Liberal party events over political donation concerns
🔮 The first briefing, which Allan did not sign, warned that the industrial relations environment on MTIA projects had become “highly challenging,” with an increase in “concerning behaviour” that could “significantly impact project costs and schedule”.
2026-09-23 · assertive framing · Bikies, ‘moral compass malfunctions’ and corruption cost: Victoria’s Big Build royal commission holds first public hearing
🔮 Datacentres in Victoria will be banned in residential areas and required to use renewable energy and contribute to the community, under new state government rules.
2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Datacentres in Victoria to be banned in residential areas
🔮 A re-elected Victorian Labor government will create two new Australian-first offences aimed at closing “loopholes” it says have allowed perpetrators of family violence to escape punishment.
2026-09-19 · assertive framing · Victorian Labor promises new offences to close domestic and family violence ‘loopholes’
🔮 Pauline Hanson announced who would be her party’s upper house candidates and Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, at a press conference last month.
2026-09-18 · assertive framing · Alleged underworld supporters and unfounded health claims: One Nation rolls out more Victorian election candidates
Also by Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent
One Nation proposes $2,000 baby subsidy in Victoria but says it won’t touch state abortion laws
2026-10-16 · The Guardian
Comedian Dave Hughes to stop speaking at Liberal party events over political donation concerns
2026-10-07 · The Guardian
Bikies, ‘moral compass malfunctions’ and corruption cost: Victoria’s Big Build royal commission holds first public hearing
2026-09-23 · The Guardian
Datacentres in Victoria to be banned in residential areas
2026-09-21 · The Guardian
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 7 articles by Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent →

Topics

Australian Niddrie Victoria Victorian the Department of Parliamentary Services

Subjects

Carroll PERSON · 5× Victoria GPE · 2× Anthony Albanese PERSON · 1× Australian NORP · 1× Ben Carroll PERSON · 1× Helen Haines PERSON · 1× Krissy Barrett PERSON · 1× Mike Bush PERSON · 1× Niddrie GPE · 1× Victorian NORP · 1×

Narrative

It’s understood Carroll had filled up his car near his home in his electorate of Niddrie on Monday night, after spending the evening responding to the alleged attack on the federal MP Helen Haines in regional Victoria earlier that day.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-21
🔮 No further action is expected to be taken.
2026-10-21 · The Guardian
‘I forgot to pay’: Victoria’s premier Ben Carroll drives off without paying for petrol, sparking police inquiries · assertive framing

Claims (24 extracted, 0 hedged)

On Tuesday night, Ben Carroll received a phone call: police were looking for him. asserted
police → receive → him
The Victorian premier had met with the state’s police commissioner earlier that morning – so he wasn’t exactly hard to find. asserted
he → meet → commissioner
But the officers weren’t looking to speak to him about their resources, powers or investigations. asserted
officers → look → resources
They wanted to know if he had driven off from a service station without paying for his petrol on Monday night. asserted
he → want → night
“Late Monday night, I was running some errands and filled up the car with petrol,” Carroll said in a statement early on Wednesday morning. “ asserted
Carroll → run → morning
] found out yesterday I forgot to pay. asserted
I → find → ?
I fixed the bill straight away.” asserted
I → fix → bill
He added that he was “grateful for the team at the servo for their understanding”. asserted
he → add → understanding
It’s understood Carroll had filled up his car near his home in his electorate of Niddrie on Monday night, after spending the evening responding to the alleged attack on the federal MP Helen Haines in regional Victoria earlier that day. asserted
Carroll → understand → Victoria
Unbeknown to him – as he met with Victoria police commissioner, Mike Bush, the head of the Australian federal police, Krissy Barrett, and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese – officers had begun searching for him. asserted
officers → meet → him
It’s understood they contacted him through the Department of Parliamentary Services on Tuesday night. asserted
they → understand → night
A bashful Carroll then headed back to the service station to pay up. asserted
Carroll → head → station
No further action is expected to be taken. asserted
action → expect → ?
Speaking at an event on Wednesday, Carroll said the former deputy premier John Thwaites had contacted him to say: “Don’t worry, Ben. asserted
premier → speak → him
I didn’t pay for the petrol, and I also drove off with the nozzle in the car.” asserted
I → pay → car
“That made me feel a lot better,” Carrol told the Age forum. asserted
Carrol → make → forum
“It shows that politicians are human beings, and even premiers make mistakes.” asserted
premiers → show → mistakes
Asked about the matter on Wednesday, Bush said the view of police was that a petrol drive-off was a “civil matter unless it’s proven otherwise”. asserted
it → ask → police
“If someone does something accidentally, non-deliberately, it becomes a very civil matter,” the commissioner said. asserted
commissioner → do → something
“That civil redress is available, and I do understand that civil redress was made. asserted
redress → understand → ?
“It does occur and that’s why we’re very careful not to criminalise every petrol driver. asserted
we → occur → driver
We do understand, and I’m very empathic and sympathetic to petrol station owners who do suffer, but it’s not always criminal [behaviour].” asserted
it → understand → owners
It came months after Carroll’s predecessor, Jacinta Allan, told parliament that police were grappling with a rise in illegal drive-offs from petrol stations. asserted
police → come → stations
“We are seeing a rise in incidents of drive-offs at service stations, and it is an illegal practice,” she said in March. asserted
she → see → March
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