REDBRIDGE Police have backtracked over figures released by the force which revealed more than one police patrol vehicle is put out of action every fortnight because officers put in the wrong type of fuel.

After the Guardian requested the details under the Freedom of Information Act, we were told petrol engines being filled with diesel or vice versa cost taxpayers £10,900 last year.

Police also admitted the blunders kept 28 crime-fighting cars and vans off the roads of the borough.

But a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police has since retracted the data, and claimed the true number of misfueled cars total just four in three years.

Matthew Sinclair, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said the original number would be disgraceful.

He added: “This is a bizarrely high rate of basic errors.

“Local tax payers expect the police precept to be spent fighting crime, not fixing cars damaged by police incompetence.

“Whether there is a technical solution or officers just need to take more care, the police need to bring down the number of cars being misfueled.”

Redbridge Police damaged 26 vehicles in this way in the financial year 2006/07 at a cost of £7,600, and have already damaged five cars since April this year, according to the original data.

But according to the revised figures, only one car was misfueled this year costing a mere £64 to put right.

Mechanic Peter Croft, of Crofts Garage, Grove Road, South Woodford, has more than 20 years’ experience of fixing cars that have been misfueled by the public and said there is no excuse for police to repeat such accidents.

He explained: “We got a spate of them about two years ago but I’ve not done one in the last year.

“Normally we can just replace the fuel filter and maybe the tank, but I had a friend who put petrol in a diesel Range Rover and had to replace everything, which was very expensive.

“At one place I worked we told customers to stick the invoice in their fuel caps so they would be reminded how much it cost them every time they filled up.”

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said she wanted to assure readers that this was a “good news story” with low instances of mis-fuelling considering the fleet size.

She added: “The MPS has been active in putting counter measures in place to prevent this error: Logbooks, vehicle markings, training and driver education are to name just a selection of initiatives.

"Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience (this mistake) has caused."