Don’t be a fuel! Tesco customer is spotted filling his petrol tank with COOKING OIL as petrol prices soar

• Footage shows the man taking tops off trolley-load of cooking oil behind his car
• He then proceeds to fill up his car’s fuel tank in front of bemused onlookers
• The customer was filmed outside a Tesco superstore in Congleton, Cheshire
• Comes as  petrol prices have continued to soar – with some stations charging as much as £2/litre

This is the bizarre moment a man was spotted refueling his car with a trolley full of cooking oil as drivers struggle with the cost of filling up.

With petrol prices hitting record highs, a customer was filmed outside a Tesco superstore in Congleton, Cheshire, on Tuesday afternoon.

In the video he can be seen at the rear of his car with a trolley-load of vegetable oil bottles that he starts to open.

One by one he then pours the oil into his vehicle as bemused onlookers watch him.

Mark Rainford, who recorded the clip, said: ‘I filmed it and as I walked past him he was taking all the tops off the bottles first, that’s what made me laugh. He had clearly thought it through.’

This is the bizarre moment a man was spotted refueling his car with a trolley full of cooking oil outside a Tesco superstore in Congleton, Cheshire – as drivers struggle with the cost of filling up

While some viewers praised the man for his ingenuity, using cooking oils as a replacement for fuel can prove extremely and can cause lasting damage to engines.

One man on social media said: ‘It’s going to be a busy night for the AA when everyone tries this in their modern diesel engines.’

Another critic said: ‘Don’t go putting veg oil in your car or van unless it’s old type diesel engine.

‘You’ll f*** your engine up, it’s too thick and you’ll blow the diesel pump up. And especially don’t put it in a petrol car/van.’

In the video he can be seen at the rear of his car with a trolley-load of vegetable oil bottles that he starts to open. One by one he then pours the oil into his vehicle as bemused onlookers watch him

A third person posted: ‘To use veg oil you need a heater in the fuel system and also the glycerine in the oil will eventually clog up the fuel system and homogenise the engine lubrication oil.

‘The only way it works is to convert it to biodiesel using toxic and dangerous chemicals.’

The video clip comes as customer continue to be clobbered by a record rise in petrol and diesel prices at a time when household energy bills are also increasing. 

On Wednesday, diesel had risen to a record average high of £1.76 per litre, while petrol was recorded to be at £1.65/litre. 

The video clip comes as customer continue to be clobbered by a record rise in petrol and diesel prices at a time when household energy bills are also increasing 

Yesterday morning, diesel rose to a record high of £1.76 per litre, while petrol was recorded to be at £1.65 a litre

The steep rises in fuel prices have also sparked fears of a wave of thefts by opportunist thieves looking to sell the fuel on or others desperate to avoid paying.

The Telegraph reported that rural households stockpiling oil in their back-garden tanks are being targeted by thieves who are exploiting the surge to sell the stolen fuel on the black market. 

Sarah Lee, Director of Policy for the Countryside Alliance told MailOnline police were already advising the public to ‘keep their tanks in a well-overlooked position’.

‘With worrying reports of thieves targeting rural households to steal oil to sell on the black market, it is critical that rural home owners and farmers ensure their security, including cctv and security lighting, is up and running,’ she said. 

Drivers continue to be clobbered by record fuel prices as petrol reaches an average of £1.65 per litre. Figures from data firm Experian Catalist show the average cost of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts has increased by 16p in the past month 

The steep rises in fuel prices have also sparked fears of a wave of thefts by opportunist thieves looking to sell the fuel on or others desperate to avoid paying. In Newcastle, police were investigating the theft of 15,000 litres of fuel, worth roughly £25,000, that was snatched from a industrial estate storage facility (pictured)

The theft of 15,000 litres of fuel, worth roughly £25,000, from an industrial estate storage facility was reported in Newcastle earlier this week.

And footage from February shows a hooded man in a tracksuit stroll up to pumps at a Co-op station in Washington, Tyne and Wear and steal council recycling bin-worth of petrol. 

A quick Google search will bring up advice over whether using cooking oil to power vehicles is viable.

Cooking oil delivery firm Cater Oils says recycling vegetable oil into a biodiesel is possible.

But on its advice page, the company adds a caveat that people ‘really shouldn’t’ just pour the oil directly from the bottle into their cars.

This is due to it being so thick and sticky.

This means it won’t flow properly through the engine and it will not be burnt efficiently. This could cause it to solidify and build up, damaging the engine.

The process of turning cooking oil into biodiesel, and therefore an efficient source of fuel, is called transesterification. But Cater Oils advises that this should be left to the experts.

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