A petrol service chain has apologised to motorists in Harpenden after more than 30 cars were filled with contaminated fuel.

Esso has issued an apologised after a delivery error resulted in a quantity of diesel being placed into one of the unleaded 95 storage tanks at Harpenden Express service station on September 10.

The service station was immediately shut down for investigation and no further product was sold.  The contaminated fuel was removed and replaced with a fresh delivery.

Richard Scrase said on behalf of Esso: "Esso wishes to apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers whose cars were affected by this incident. 

"Site staff assisted those drivers whose vehicles were affected and we are working to reimburse affected customers.

"Every year there are over 200,000 fuel deliveries to Esso service stations across the UK and 
such incidents are extremely rare. We take pride in providing customers with quality fuels and take such incidents very seriously, and will investigate fully."