‘Careless’ police put wrong fuel in vehicles, leaving taxpayers with £53,000 repair bill

POLICE officers mistakenly put the wrong type of fuel in patrol cars nearly 300 times in 2017, costing more than £53,000 in repairs.

Some 299 incidents of misfuelling were recorded last year.

West Midlands Police recorded the most incidents – 66, at a cost of £3,737.

The Met Police had 49 incidents, costing £17,589.57, while Police Scotland had 16, costing £2,004.92.

The figures, obtained via Freedom of Information requests, emerge following revelations in The Sunday Telegraph that at least 769 ambulances were misfueled in the last six years.

Of the UK’S 45 police forces, 40 responded and 33 admitted paying out for repairs to a police vehicle after a misfuelling incident last year – at an average cost of £178 a time.

John O’connell, chief executive of pressure group The Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s staggering that such a simple mistake is made almost daily. This careless attitude shows a lack of respect for taxpayers who both pay their wages and are forced to pay for the repairs.”

West Midlands Police fleet manager Gary Mallett said mistakes increased after 2013 when the force moved away from internal fuel sites and fuel keys in a cost-cutting exercise. He said: “We saw a major spike in the number of misfuels in 2013-14 and addressed this by notifying users of the volume and cost of the mistake.

“We also labelled the fuel type as a all vehicles with reminder of the correct fuel that should be used. This has had a positive effect, with a 53 per cent reduction in the number of misfuels but more importantly, around a 90 per cent reduction in the actual cost of repairs.

“We put out regular reminders to staff, and this is continuing to have an impact on reducing the problem.”

A spokesman for the Met said that since 2008, its vehicles – a mix of both petrol and diesel – had been refuelled 1.5 million times and the mistakes reflected “a tiny proportion of total refuelling”.

Motoring organisations believe the problem will be eradicated completely when police forces adopt electric cars.

But a spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “The misfuelling of police vehicles is relatively rare.

“Drivers will often move from one vehicle to another depending on operational requirements, which can increase the possibility of mistakes.”