SCORES of motorists have had their cars ruined or damaged after a diesel and petrol mix-up at a filling station

As many as 40 drivers could have damaged their cars after filling up with the wrong fuel from the Esso petrol station in Hangleton.

Drivers who bought fuel from the garage in the past week believe the pumps labelled unleaded were pumping out diesel and the diesel pumps contained unleaded fuel.

The error has caused misery and mechanical breakdown to dozens of motorists who filled up on Monday and Tuesday last week. A member of staff at the garage at Hangleton Road said that the faulty cars "were being dealt with" but owner Mr Patel refused to talk to The Argus.

The error at the pumps is thought to have occurred between Monday and Tuesday, but most motorists only noticed problems when their cars broke down or heard rumours from other concerned motorists.

Geoffrey Perks, of Hove, filled up on Monday, but did not notice a problem until Friday evening.

His Vauxhall Astra suffered engine failure travelling on the busy A23 from his work in Crawley. He said he was also driving across a busy roundabout with his children in the car when it broke down again.

He told The Argus: "The owner Mr Patel told me the delivery driver mixed up the fuel at about 10.30am last Monday (May 16).

"I filled up at about 7.30pm on the Monday.

"I had been running the car for four days on the wrong fuel before it started to go wrong.

"Now it's caused all sorts of problems and it was cutting out on the A23 in rush hour.

"I felt it was really dangerous not to tell people as they have CCTV in the forecourt and that could have contacted people to warn them."

Mr Perks has been told by his insurance company that the cost of the repairs will probably mean his car has to be written off.

Another driver, Sam Murray, said repairs to his car would cost in the region of £7,000.

Mechanic Steve Denyer has had another four damaged vehicles in his Westbourne Place garage suffering from problems believed to be due to the fuel mix up.

He said that repair bills would range from about £500 to simply flush out engines to several thousands if the wrong fuel had caused further problems.

One driver said she had reported problems with her car to the garage on Monday evening, but drivers filling up on Tuesday still suffered problems.

A spokesman for Esso said that the Hangleton petrol station was privately run by Mr Patel and they were not responsible for deliveries.

The Argus repeatedly attempted to contact Mr Patel yesterday but he did not respond to our requests for a comment.