Tesco offers to pay for faulty petrol damage

Tesco has apologised in the national press for damage caused to cars by faulty fuel bought from its petrol stations and has offered to pay for repairs.

The advert said: 'If petrol bought at Tesco has damaged your car, we'd like to say how sorry we are. More to the point, we'd like to promise to pay for the repairs.' The headline is: 'Tesco petrol. It's back to normal and we're sorry.'

The suspect batch, found to be contaminated with silicon, was traced back to a supplier in Essex. It caused thousands of cars to breakdown, leaving customers with repair bills costing hundreds of pounds.

Before being reimbursed, motorists will have to prove by way of receipt that they bought petrol from Tesco stations that supplied the contaminated fuel.

However, Tesco said it would consider all reasonable applications. A spokesman said: 'We will look at each case. Give us as much information as you can. If you don't have a receipt, we will still look at your case. A bank or credit card statement would be worth sending.

'We will refund any reasonable costs of having the car repaired as a direct result of Tesco fuel.'

Petrol stations run by supermarket Morrisons were also thought to have been supplying the suspect fuel. Last week, Morrisons stopped selling unleaded fuel at more than 40 outlets and told its customers to get in contact if their vehicles had been damaged.