gas meter bandit

gas meter bandit (plural gas meter bandits)

1. (chiefly British, slang) A small-time thief.
   • 2000, Gilda O'Neill, My East End: Memories of Life in Cockney London:

     We might not have had that much to pinch, but they'd still have your brass candlesticks off the mantelpiece. There's always wrong 'uns, in every walk of life, who'll have whatever you've got from under your nose. Bloody gas-meter bandits, […]

   • 2011, Razor Smith, A Rusty Gun:

     At the lowest end of the scale are petty criminals, shoplifters, sneak thieves, joyriders, muggers (or 'street robbers', as they are now called) and gas-meter bandits. Up a step are burglars, car thieves, fraudsters and drug dealers.

   • 2011, Jake Arnott, He Kills Coppers:

     Fucking gas-meter bandits, thought Billy. Some fucking gang. I'm stuck with a couple of gas-meter bandits. Stan and his nagging missus. His non-existent job that he's never late for.