A driver from Huntingdon has said he was left with a £500 repair bill for his Saab after filling up with the diesel at the Tesco forecourt in the town last month.

Talking to the Hunts Post, Andy Ibbotson said the day after he’d filled up, he had trouble starting his engine, but managed to get his car going. A week later, the car lost power and stalled several times before failing to start.

Andy took the car to a garage which replaced the fuel pump and filter. Mechanics told him that the problem had been the diesel, which was thick and black – not the normal yellow colour.

Speaking to the Hunts Post, Andy said: “It’s not the type of thing you expect when you fill up at Tesco. I was told that on the day I filled up the garage had run out of diesel, and technicians were working on some of the pumps before an emergency delivery. This would explain why I had contaminated diesel in my car.”

He added that when he first contacted Tesco to complain, he was told that they had not received any other complaints and the problem could not have been with its pumps. But after Andy proved his car was regularly serviced and produced fuel receipts, Tesco admitted liability.

A spokesman for Trading Standards said that so far this year, five people had complained about the quality of diesel supplied by Tesco in Cambridgeshire.

A Tesco spokesman told The Hunts Post: “A small number of customers – five out of the hundreds that would fill up in a day – have experienced problems with diesel during the cold snap. We apologise for this and we are arranging any necessary repairs to their vehicles.”