Bungling cops have cost taxpayers more than ?1million by filling up their vehicles with the wrong fuel.
Four cars are damaged daily by officers who can?t tell the difference between petrol and diesel at the pumps, a Mirror probe has found.
The repair bill averages ?6,500 a week for the past three years.
Forces have to pay for flushing out the wrong fuel, repairing damaged engines, labour costs and for refilling the tank with the right mix.
The worst offender is the Met. Britain?s biggest force wasted ?194,212 on misfuelling repair work in only three years. Its officers confused petrol and diesel 671 times.
TaxPayers? Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: ?It is shocking that so many police cars are being wrecked by stupid errors.
?Every car damaged is thousands of pounds diverted away from the fight against crime. One would hope our police were more on the ball.?
The Mirror?s four-month investigation, using the Freedom of Information Act, exposes the extent of the police misfuelling scandal for the first time. We demanded pump bungle figures from all 52 police forces.
Only eight refused, some saying it would take too long. Four did not respond.
In those cases, we used average numbers of incidents and costs.
In three years, police misfuelled 4,907 vehicles, costing ?270,641 in 2006, ?386,061 in 2007 and ?344,236 last year. Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne said last night: ?Surely the solution is big, colour-coded stickers on tank caps so officers don?t mess up.?
But North Wales police brought in bright yellow cap covers marked ?Diesel? in 2006 ? and it did not stop officers misfuelling 39 times.
We discovered taxpayers were paying once for the cap covers and again when officers ignored them.
The Met, who wasted four times the total spent by second worst offender Surrey, said: ?The number of fills for 6,500 vehicles in 2008 was 314,423.
?There were 287 misfuellings that year, costing ?84,992. This is a misfuelling rate of 0.09 per cent.?
Gwent police, who wasted ?16,137 in this way over three years, blamed ?officers in high-pressure roles?.
Strathclyde police ? ?21,896 wasted ? said they were ?continually testing new devices? to combat the problem.
Humberside, who came out best with only one misfuel, costing ?51, said: ?We use liquid petroleum gas and save ?250,000 a year.
Four cars are damaged daily by officers who can?t tell the difference between petrol and diesel at the pumps, a Mirror probe has found.
The repair bill averages ?6,500 a week for the past three years.
Forces have to pay for flushing out the wrong fuel, repairing damaged engines, labour costs and for refilling the tank with the right mix.
The worst offender is the Met. Britain?s biggest force wasted ?194,212 on misfuelling repair work in only three years. Its officers confused petrol and diesel 671 times.
TaxPayers? Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: ?It is shocking that so many police cars are being wrecked by stupid errors.
?Every car damaged is thousands of pounds diverted away from the fight against crime. One would hope our police were more on the ball.?
The Mirror?s four-month investigation, using the Freedom of Information Act, exposes the extent of the police misfuelling scandal for the first time. We demanded pump bungle figures from all 52 police forces.
Only eight refused, some saying it would take too long. Four did not respond.
In those cases, we used average numbers of incidents and costs.
In three years, police misfuelled 4,907 vehicles, costing ?270,641 in 2006, ?386,061 in 2007 and ?344,236 last year. Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne said last night: ?Surely the solution is big, colour-coded stickers on tank caps so officers don?t mess up.?
But North Wales police brought in bright yellow cap covers marked ?Diesel? in 2006 ? and it did not stop officers misfuelling 39 times.
We discovered taxpayers were paying once for the cap covers and again when officers ignored them.
The Met, who wasted four times the total spent by second worst offender Surrey, said: ?The number of fills for 6,500 vehicles in 2008 was 314,423.
?There were 287 misfuellings that year, costing ?84,992. This is a misfuelling rate of 0.09 per cent.?
Gwent police, who wasted ?16,137 in this way over three years, blamed ?officers in high-pressure roles?.
Strathclyde police ? ?21,896 wasted ? said they were ?continually testing new devices? to combat the problem.
Humberside, who came out best with only one misfuel, costing ?51, said: ?We use liquid petroleum gas and save ?250,000 a year.
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