One driver visited his local petrol station in Basildon earlier this month and topped his car up with £60 worth of diesel.

However, after just 500 yards on the A127, his vehicle stopped, forcing the driver to leave his car on the carriageway and wait for it to be recovered.

The motorist told the Basildon Echo that the car started “smoking and spilling” when it broke down during rush hour.

He noted that the fuel didn’t smell like diesel, and was concerned that he had potentially tanked up with unleaded fuel.

When the car was assessed by a specialist, the driver claimed the technician had “never seen such a mixture before”.

The owner of the white Ford went back to the filling station to see if he had put unleaded petrol into his diesel car by mistake.

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He told the Basildon Echo: “I realised I didn’t make the mistake; it was their fault.

“I recently managed to get my car sorted after paying £700 to the mechanic. It has been a right pain.”

The driver also expressed concerns about the long-term health of his car, before saying that other motorists had reached out to him to complain about the same issue.

After posting about the incident on social media, he received a number of responses from other people who had similarly filled up with “contaminated fuel”.

The forecourt operator acknowledged the issue, describing it as “fuel contamination” by “some customers”, although it did not specify how many.

It apologised for the inconvenience and distress it had caused to people in the area, adding that the quality and safety of its fuel was “of the utmost importance”.

A spokesperson for the fuel station said: “As soon as this issue was identified, we took immediate steps to secure the site to prevent further customer impact and have launched a full investigation to determine the cause of the contamination.

“Engineers are visiting the site to determine the cause of the underlying issue. Customers who believe their vehicle has been affected should write to us so we can duly support and assist.”