Wales: Tesco Fined For Fuel Overcharging

Caerphilly Council prosecuted the firm under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 after a routine inspection by trading standards at its Ystrad Mynach store. The grocery chain was also ordered to pay £6,500 court costs after admitting six measuring offences.

Tesco began refunding customers in February. It has been asked to comment. Caerphilly Council said customers received 4% less fuel than they paid for from 18 of the service station's 36 fuel nozzles. The short measures were caused by an "incorrect modification" to chip and pin readers.

But the council said no accuracy checks or tests were carried out on the affected pumps by engineers who had carried out the modification work. Tesco admitted six offences of delivering short measures of fuel and using unjust measuring equipment between October 2007 and July 2008. During this period more than 9.2m litres of fuel were sold.

Jacqui Morgan, Caerphilly trading standards and licensing manager, said: "This has been a significant case for trading standards due to the size of the problem and the length of time it went undetected.

"It clearly shows the importance of weights and measures legislation that applies to such equipment to prevent problems occurring in the first place and the safety net of inspections carried out by fully independent trading standards officers in protecting the interests of the public."

Fuel pumps at more than 70 Tesco filling stations in the UK had to be checked after people were overcharged in Ystrad Mynach.

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