Georgina Lennon :: Petrol Contamination..

CONTAMINATED petrol has left a family five hundred pounds out of pocket after they filled up at their local BP petrol station.
Lynda Galloway from Irvine in Ayrshire put twenty pounds of petrol in her tank after the red light came on and headed to do her shopping at Tesco less than five miles away.

But the car didn’t make it that far – it began shuddering and lost power before coming to a complete halt. Unable to start the car again, Lynda called the AA who towed her car to Kerr & Smith car dealership in Ayr.

“As it was the weekend the garage couldn’t look at my car till the Monday” explained Lynda. 
“They initially thought it was the spark plugs from what I had described so replaced them and gave me I back on the Tuesday,” she continued.

However the car only just made the 20mile drive back home, mis-firing all the way down the dual carriageway before once again it ground to a halt.

Lynda, from Dreghorn, Irvine explained: “My husband drove the car home and it mis-fired and jerked the whole road home before it died again.”

“Once again we called the AA who took the car back to the garage who did a full check of the whole care this time.”

The mechanics at Kerr & Smith emptied the petrol tank and cleaned the pipes. And were astonished at what they found.

“The petrol is the filthiest I’ve seen in a long time” said one mechanic.

“It’s definitely contaminated and the reason the car is having the trouble,” he continued.
“The garage cleaned out the tank and filter pipes but unfortunately the car was still having problems so they had no choice but to replace the whole tank,” said Lynda.

“It cost me five hundred and two pounds but at least now the car is running as it was before I put the petrol in.”
Linda contacted the BP garage in question and was told by a spokesperson that they would speak to the franchise owner, Mr Thomson, and would try to sort something out. However Mr Thomson had accepted no responsibility and said it wasn’t his petrol that was contaminated.

“I’m fuming at his attitude and his blatant dis-regard for the damage caused to my car by petrol I bought, in good faith, from his BP station,” slammed Lynda.

A News of the World reporter at  showed the petrol to an independent garage that upon sight of it were shocked at what they seen.
“It’s definitely contaminated with water and something else,” he said.
“Petrol is supposed to be clear in colour and as you can see this is not. “It also has stuff floating in it, which you can see all gathered at the bottom,” he added.