Petrol station bosses were accused of profiteering yesterday after it was revealed that a garage was charging up to £2 a litre at the pumps.

The astonishing price - which equates to £9 a gallon - came on the fourth and final day of a strike by Shell tanker drivers.

The AA said that the walkout, which could begin again on Friday, had caused widespread shortages and long queues at petrol stations.

Profits of doom: The Foxhayes garage near Exeter which was selling petrol and diesel at £1.99 a litre

Its president, Edmund King, added: 'If drivers can find fuel at the pumps they are paying a fortune.'

The biggest recorded mark-up was at the BWOC Foxhayes Garage at Exwick, near Exeter in Devon, which was charging drivers £1.99 a litre - 81p more than the average price across the country.

The garage's manager, Ron James, denied profiteering and insisted he was hiking the price to help preserve supplies.

Garage manager Ron James denies profiteering, insisting he hiked the price of petrol to help preserve supplies

He said: 'I am trying to stop people panic-buying.

'People have been buying hundreds of pounds worth of fuel instead of the usual £5 or £6.

'It slowed down after I put the price up and the result is I've still got fuel left.

'It's been chaos and it's still chaos. I've never seen anything like it in 30 years of petrol retailing.'

He added: 'We're not being mean. I would say I'm a very nice person. The price will go back to normal as soon as we get a delivery.'

But one disgruntled driver said: 'It's just greedy profiteering. It's outrageously high - it's atrocious. It's clearly an attempt to take advantage of the fuel shortage.'

One Shell garage in Manchester was charging 129.9p a litre for petrol - more than 10p higher than the average UK price.

It pushed its price up by 14p over the weekend and was yesterday no longer showing the price on its forecourt digital display.

A spokesman for Shell said the garage was 'dealer-owned' and therefore the prices were set locally.

But motorcyclist Neil Owens, 32, from Gorton in South Manchester, said: 'I think that the cost of petrol is a rip-off.'

Similar prices were reported in garages in Yorkshire and some remote areas of Scotland.

In its survey of pumps across the country, Petrolprices.com said the average had hit a new record of 118p per litre.

Diesel was at 131.3p - fractionally under the £6 a gallon mark.



A Shell garage near Cambridge was forced to shut because it ran out of fuel

Average pump prices have jumped nearly 1.5p a litre since the Government issued its 'Don't Panic' warning last Tuesday.

Yesterday was a 'Black Monday' for motorists as crude oil soared to $139.89 a barrel - 40 per cent higher than this time last year.

The surge in prices came despite weekend promises from Saudi Arabia that it would boost output by 200,000 barrels a day next month.

The Government said that 616 garages - seven per cent of the UK total - had yesterday run out of petrol or diesel.

Shell added that nearly half of the garages it owns had dried up.

The drivers' strike over pay was due to end at 6am today but could begin again on Friday if a settlement is not reached.

The tanker companies said the union had rejected their offer of a two-stage 13 per cent pay rise, which would take average earnings to around £41,500 by the end of the year.

However, sources said both sides were 'hopeful' of a resolution when talks begin again today.

Bernie Holloway, a director at haulage company Hoyer UK, said he was glad that the two sides were talking again.

He added: 'I don't think we should kid ourselves. There's a lot of work to be done, but we're hopeful and I'm sure that Unite and ourselves will be giving everything that we can to try and get this issue resolved.'

Gordon Brown's spokesman said the continued talks were 'an encouraging step forward'.

He added: 'We hope it is possible for the two sides to reach an agreement so as to avoid any repetition of this weekend's disruption.'

Picketing continued yesterday at up to 14 refineries and depots.

Workers from rival firms yesterday joined the walkout in support of Shell colleagues at the Grangemouth oil refinery - which meant even less petrol reached forecourts.

About 60 tanker drivers from companies including BP and Conoco joined their colleagues in taking industrial action.

Strikers manning the picket line at the Shell refinery in Jarrow, Newcastle upon Tyne, said that they were told not to give interviews in case any 'inflammatory remarks' jeopardised the negotiations.

In France, it's Le Crawl...

Truckers blocked roads across France yesterday in their latest protest against high fuel costs.

The nationwide day of action was announced by the country's main haulage associations.

It included roadblocks and 'snail' operations by slow-moving trucks to disrupt traffic.

'It's not about punishing transport users, it's about sending a warning to the government,' said Philippe Fournier of Unostra, an association that represents small haulage firms. 'It has to accept its responsibilities.'

Coming a day before union action against plans to reform working hours and pension laws, the fuel protests added to a climate of discontent in France.

In Paris, traffic was disturbed by private ambulance operators protesting in front of the health ministry. Outside the capital, convoys of trucks crawling along the highways held up traffic near cities ranging from Calais to Marseille.

'We don't want to go under, we want to remain competitive compared with our European competition,' Pierre Sibut of the FNTR union said. 'We're asking the government to put shortterm measures in place to help us get through the next six months.'

Earlier this month the union said that bankruptcies among transport operators had risen 25 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2007, with 500 firms going out of business.

The government has proposed several potential relief measures, including a possible reduction in fuel tax.