An arrest warrant has been issued for two South Australian men who fled from a vehicle being pursued by local police, leaving two female passengers to face the music.

On Saturday evening, the driver of the vehicle had driven from the Shell service station in Craiglie with $100 in unpaid fuel, but police were able to identify the driver and the vehicle from Shell's security footage.

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"We located that vehicle a short time later and it evaded police, but we located it again a few minutes later after it turned up a dead-end street," Port Douglas Police Officer-in-charge Sergeant Damian Meadows said.

"As a result of the information we gleaned from both the service station and the two passengers we've taken out arrest warrants on the two South Australian men, and we've seized the vehicle."

Police are confident of securing the arrests.

Security footage was again used to identify two female backpackers who stole a quantity of alcohol from the Central bottle shop in Macrossan Street.

Police found the pair with the unopened alcohol a short time later and they will appear in Mossman Magistrates Court on a theft charge in September.

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