Cops rack up £1m misfuel repair bill

By Will McManus

12th June 2009

Dim-witted detectives and bungling bobbies have wasted over £1million of taxpayers’ money... by filling their police vehicles with the wrong fuel.

An average of four cars a day are damaged by cops who didn’t notice the difference between petrol and diesel at the pumps, according to official statistics released last week. And from 2006 to 2008, UK constabularies had to shell out an average £333,760 a year to repair the contamination to vehicles.

London’s Metropolitan force was the worst offender, costing £194,212 after officers picked up the wrong pump 671 times. The Humberside force fared best, with only one misfuel – its fleet runs largely on LPG – while Gwent police blamed officers’ high-pressure roles for the errors.

The figures were released after a probe by campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Boss Matthew Elliott said: “One would hope our police were more on the ball.”

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