Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea has called for a radical re-think of policy in the fight against fuel laundering, over and above sentencing policy.  
The Lagan Valley MLA said:
“Avoidance of fuel duty involves a huge sum of money which is used to directly fund terrorist activity and organised criminal gangs. The removal of this income would seriously impair the ability of these groups to operate, and many of the problems which society faces will disappear.
Not only that, if we could find a way of reclaiming the lost money for the people of Northern Ireland it would enable us to eased the burden on already hard-pressed services.
The amount of money at stake is £200 million. In fact fuel duty is the fourth largest revenue stream after income tax, VAT and National Insurance, larger than the entire corporation tax take, which we are of course already considering devolving.
A fundamental and radically new approach is needed. This is not a new problem. Indeed ten years ago, the then DETI Minister, Sir Reg Empey revealed that paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland were smuggling up to £200 million of fuel onto the Province every year.
Since then, despite valiant efforts of both the Police and the Customs officers, the problem still remains.
I have a suggestion which might be deemed as radical, but in light of the problem we are trying to solve, I believe it merits consideration. Firstly, I am normally in favour of the free market, but in this instance if the Treasury was prepared to devolve powers to regulate petrol prices in Northern Ireland in the same manner as we regulate the price of gas and electricity, then we would both benefit consumers and protect society from criminality.
There would be other benefits. Many people in rural parts of Northern Ireland complain about the different price of fuel compared to the cities. Given the high amount of tax and the relatively small geographic area of Northern Ireland, there is no reason why there should be so. The ability to regulate the price would remove this anomaly and give us the powers to investigate the financial background of those who retail petrol.”