£9m payout over contaminated petrol

12 April 2012

Supermarkets have paid more than £9 million compensation to motorists in wake of a petrol contamination incident.

Tesco has forked out around £8 million after getting claims from more than 17,000 people whose cars were damaged by the "faulty" fuel.

Rival chain Asda will this week send final cheques to some 3,000 customers who collectively claimed £1.4 million compensation.

Morrisons said it had resolved 94% of claims but wouldn't put a figure on pay-outs or the number of motorists affected.

Thousands of vehicles were damaged when petrol contaminated with silicon was supplied to forecourts in the South East in February.

Tesco was forced to empty and re-fill unleaded petrol tanks in around 150 forecourts after the contamination came to light.

Asda and Morrisons had around 30 and 41 affected forecourts respectively.

A Tesco spokesman said more claims were still being processed.

"We are 90% of the way through. The outstanding ones are where we are waiting for paperwork from the claimants," he said.

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Council, the authority which covers the area where Tesco headquarters are based, said it had not received any complaints from customers about the supermarket's compensation payouts.

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