Charity misses out on funds as used oil stolen from café

Thursday 19 October 2023

A learning disability support charity has missed out on the money it receives in return for collecting used oil after 40 litres was stolen from outside the Gunsite Café.

A 20-litre canister of the café's used oil – which was set to be donated to local charity Les Amis – has disappeared from its storage location outside the premises on two separate occasions in the last month.

This prompted the Gunsite Café owner, Anne Elliott, to launch an appeal on social media, pleading with the culprits to "stop this activity”. 

"You are effectively stealing from us, and depriving the charity Les Amis who officially take our used oil," she wrote in a post which has been widely shared on Facebook.

Speaking to Express, Mrs Elliott described "having things taken from you" as "not very nice", but was mainly concerned about the impact on the learning disability support charity.

Les Amis explained that used oil is collected from various locations around the island – including the Gunsite Café – and then sent to a UK company who pay the charity for the amount of oil.

The charity will therefore miss out on the money they could've received in exchange for the missing 40 litres of used oil.

Mrs Elliott explained that the oil cannot be kept indoors at the Gunsite Café as there isn't enough space, but hoped that her social media appeal would prevent any further thefts.