JOHOR BARU, Malaysia: The owner of a petrol kiosk which had petrol adulterated with water was ordered by the Consumer Claims Tribunal here to refund a motorist for the fuel he bought and pay for the repair of his car.
The owner of a Mercedes Benz, Lau Swee Seng, 37, was awarded RM700 (S$296.59) for the cost of repair and RM133 for the petrol he bought from the kiosk on Sept 12.
Tribunal president Faridah Abrahim said the award was granted to Lau because his witness, a service manager from a workshop here was able to prove that the damage to the vehicle was caused by the contaminated fuel.
She said Lau's mechanic conducted a computerised assessment on the vehicle, which was more accurate than the manual check done by the petrol kiosk.
"The inspection was also done on the same day of the complaint while the petrol kiosk owner only did the inspection on Sept 18, three days after she was informed about the problem," she said.
The witness Mohd Kamal Mohd Karim told Faridah that a computerised check revealed that the presence of water in the fuel was the reason the car vibrated and the engine malfunctioned.
"The engine is highly sensitive to any foreign substances found in the fuel," he said as he showed Faridah some of the fuel sucked out of the petrol tank.
However, Lau was denied the additional RM1,000 that he wanted to claim for the costs he incurred in renting a car for four days while his vehicle was in the workshop.
Faridah said the tribunal did not have the authority to grant indirect claims related to the case.
