Motorists receive £9m fuel payout

Thousands of cars were damaged by the contaminated fuel

Supermarkets have paid out more than £9m in compensation to motorists following an incident which saw petrol contaminated with silicon.

Tesco has paid about £8m after more than 17,000 people filed claims when the fuel damaged their vehicles.

Asda is sending cheques to about 3,000 customers who collectively claimed £1.4m in compensation.

The contaminated petrol was supplied to forecourts in south-east England and damaged thousands of vehicles.

Some 150 of Tesco's forecourts had their unleaded petrol tanks emptied and refilled following the contamination.

About 30 of Asda's forecourts were affected, while 41 Morrisons forecourts received the contaminated fuel.

Morrisons said it had resolved 94% of its claims but would not reveal how much had been paid out or how many motorists had been affected.

A Tesco spokesman said the supermarket was still processing more claims from motorists with damaged cars.

"We are 90% of the way through. The outstanding ones are where we are waiting for paperwork from the claimants," he said.