Petrol and diesel with lower octane than those declared and with a flash point lower than the legal value: seals on 25 dispensers in a distributor in the province of Como by the Financial Police. The financiers of the Como Group have carried out a series of checks on the conformity and safety of the products offered for sale by road and motorway distributors in the province.
During the activities, in addition to checks on the correctness of the quantity of fuel delivered to the pump, including specific quality checks on the numerous samples taken directly from the dispensing nozzles of the systems and sent for analysis to the Chemical Laboratory of the Customs and Monopolies Agency in Milan. The selection of distributors to be subjected to control carried out by the Guardia di Finanza thus made it possible to identify a significant anomaly in the chemical composition of one of the samples taken: in fact, the fuel analyzed had altered chemical characteristicsresulting probably mixed. A specific joint activity was therefore prepared by the Fiamme Gialle and the Como Customs and Monopolies Agency against the plant suspected of marketing non-compliant energy products.
During the inspection, the financiers and customs officials carried out further sampling at the distributor and, to guarantee the timeliness of the intervention, they employed the ADM Mobile Chemical Laboratorythrough which it was possible to carry out the analyses, in real time, directly in the service area.
Once the first results were obtained and the irregularity of the products was noted, the samples were immediately sent to the Chemical Laboratory of Milan which he carried out with an emergency procedure new analyses. The irregularities have been confirmed, with particular concern for the results relating to chemical characteristics of the stored diesel fuel; in fact, a flash point of 40°C was found, when the standard states that it must never be lower than 55°C. The flash point is the temperature above which the liquid releases sufficient vapor to create a flammable mixture with the air, while below it the vapor that forms is still insufficient to create a flammable mixture; the lower the flash point, the more easily the vapor forms at normal temperatures and the greater the risk of it catching fire during transport.
Analyzes of the petrol made it possible to ascertain that the product was put on sale with an octane number lower than that declared. Petrol with higher octane, or Premium, is able to optimize the performance of the car, cleans the engine and produces fewer harmful emissions but, in this specific case, the fuel offered for sale, at a higher price, did not have the expected characteristics.
The products subjected to seizure, of lower quality than that declared, although they do not cause immediate operating anomalies in vehicles with their prolonged use they could still have damaged the engines and produced more polluting exhaust gas emissions.
At the end of the activity, 25 dispensers were sealed and four tanks containing 27,000 liters of automotive diesel and 1,000 liters of “100 octane” petrol were seized and found to be non-compliant. The legal representative of the distribution plant, of which, at the current stage of the investigations, has been reported for “fraud in the exercise of trade” and for “possession or use of products obtained from clandestine manufacturing or unauthorized mixing”.
