MRH has found itself at the centre of a social media storm after a customer shared a picture on Facebook which he claimed showed he was being overcharged.

The story was picked up by news outlets and at 1pm today the picture, which appears to show a charge of 125p for one litre of petrol when the price is 123.9ppl, had been shared by more than 185,000 people.

The Facebook user called Attila Boros said he visited MRH’s BP-branded site at Girton in Cambridgeshire, where he said he took the picture, and wrote: “Now I heard about garages starting to clock the pumps to charge you more than advertised so I started putting the test to the theory and low and behold…they were right! Charging me more for my fuel…Bast**ds! Now I can’t believe I never actually checked this before! As you can see, 1 Litre should cost 123.9 pence, when I put exactly 1 Litre in it came to 125pence!”

MRH, which is number one in Forecourt Traders’s Top 50 Indies with 380 sites, explained that the price was correct and more fuel had actually been dispensed than could be shown on the pump’s display.

In a statement, the firm said: “The £1.25 cost is the correct price for the 1.008 litres of fuel.

“As this pump head only displays to two decimal places it will still only show 1 litre for £1.25 and not the full amount dispensed.

“The pump also has to dispense a minimum of 2 litres before a sale can take place. This is stated on the display.”