by Thom Morris
tmorris@thekmgroup.co.uk

Kent taxpayers have forked out more than £13,000 for engine repairs in the last year because police officers put the wrong fuel in their cars.

Medway and East Kent tied for the greatest number of wrong-fuel incidents, with 10 each, at a total cost of £4,000.

Police in south Kent, which covers Ashford, Folkestone, Dover and Deal, have had to take a police vehicle to the garage nine times over the last year with engine troubles at a cost of nearly £2,000.

The problem was revealed in a Freedom of Infromation request to Kent Police.

A spokesman for the force said that in order to reduce the number of vehicles incorrectly fuelled, they have now introduced a diesel guard that is fitted to vehicles as they go in for servicing.

Another scheme is a diesel-only policy for all police vehicles, which was implemented two years ago.

Despite this, over the last year, 63 police officers and staff in Kent incorrectly fuelled their car - up from 46 the year before.

The cost of fixing the vehicles has also rocketed 45 per cent on the previous year, from £8,938 to £13,010. Over the past three years it has cost a total of £32,498 to fix 158 mis-fuelled vehicles.

Audio: Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas on police using the wrong fuel

Petrol in a diesel engine acts as a solvent, reducing lubrication and causing damage to the pump through metal on metal contact. The further the petrol goes into the engine, the more expensive the repair can be. It is sometimes cheaper in extreme cases to fit a new engine.

As a result of the diesel-only policy, Kent Police has managed to save 10 per cent in fuel costs in 2009/10 compared with the year before. In 2008/09 the total cost of fuelling police vehicles was over £2.5 million. This came down to £2,327,957 in 2009/10 - a 10 per cent decrease.

The AA estimate that about 150,000 drivers put the wrong fuel in their cars each year.