DOZENS of motorists are facing repair bills of up to £5,000 after filling their cars up with suspected contaminated fuel at a Poole supermarket.

Retail giant Tesco yesterday confirmed that an “urgent investigation” had been launched when a number of diesel cars suffered engine problems after tanking-up at the Branksome filling station on Thursday.

Since then scores of worried motorists have bombarded the Daily Echo newsroom to say they’ve become victims of the dodgy diesel.

Almost all of them have reported repair bills totalling thousands of pounds.

Jill Kelly, a nurse assessor from Poole, became stranded after her virtually-new Dacia Duster broke down in Salisbury, where she had taken her 80-year-old mother to hospital for a cataract operation.

“I felt awful because I was there to be with my mum, who was very anxious, but I wasn’t – I was on the phone dealing with the breakdown people and trying to get a courtesy car.”

She described Tesco’s customer service as “dreadful” and confirmed she had been quoted £5,000 to repair her car. It was only when she saw the story on Twitter, after the Daily Echo broke it online over the weekend, that she realised Tesco had admitted there could be an issue with its diesel.

Carl and Kerry Collinson, who run the Jurassic Tattoo Convention and the Urban Image Tattoo Studio in Kinson, only bought their Dodge Nitro 4x4 the day before it broke down.

Carl said: “It’s not a brand-new car, but it’s got less than 9,000 miles on the clock and we’ve saved for a long time.

“We took it out on Thursday and it died in the middle of the road. It’s got to go into a garage and have major surgery and it could be £5,000 to get it fixed.”

Bournemouth driver Wesley Hayman, who travelled to see his father on the Isle of Wight after filling up, said he was about to contact the RAC until reading the Echo’s story online.

“The car is driving so sluggishly and making a really loud noise, it is clear there is a problem. I filled up at Tesco Branksome on Thursday, but no-one from there has tried to contact me about this.”

Another driver, who asked not to be named, said he also filled up at the petrol station in Poole Road on Thursday and is now facing a £4,500 repair bill to get his two-year-old car back on the road.

He added: “I’ve been told by my garage that the diesel that came out of the pump had been corrupted.”

Offer of compensation

A TESCO spokesman told the Daily Echo yesterday: “We’re urgently investigating the problems that some customers are experiencing after filling up their tanks with diesel at Branksome filling station.

“We ask anyone who is experiencing issues after buying diesel in the last few days to take their receipt to the store.

“We will of course compensate drivers if the problems are found to have been caused by our fuel.”