More allegations against service station near Vidor

ORANGE COUNTY- A service station owner near Vidor is under pressure again and accused of selling bad diesel to customers. A month ago, KFDM told you about an ongoing state investigation into complaints about J.R. Conoco near Vidor. Drivers claim diesel from the station ruined their auto engines and state regulators say fuel was pumped into ditches around the station.

Now another customer is accusing the station of selling bad diesel.

Fred Norman's truck sits at Weaver Motors in Kirbyville because it stopped working on August 15th. "He should have been shut down" says Norman.

Norman says he wasn't aware of the ongoing investigations into J.R. Conoco off farm road 105 when he filled up there. "I was pumping diesel and the truck just died. I immediately shut the pump off. Went to crank my truck and the water light came up on the dash." Norman says mostly water came out of his tank.

Norman says it caused about $6,000 in damage to his truck. "The owner Mr. Muhammad Sultan came out and we went through the whole situation again and he assured me he was going to take care of it" explains Norman.

Norman says the owner signed a piece of paper promising to pay for the repairs. But nothing has been done.

Sultan says "we are checking everything on a daily routine basis." Muhammad Sultan says nothing was wrong with the diesel he sold to Norman on August 15th.

The only problem? The Texas Department of Agriculture says it ordered Sultan to stop selling diesel until August 17th. Sultan says that's news to him. "I did not knew it. We call the Texas Department of Agriculture that we got the diesel. If I knew we could not sell it, then we should not sell it" says Sultan.

Sultan says the diesel he sold on the 15th was the same diesel regulators checked on the 17th when they told him it was okay. Sultan says "there is nothing wrong with my diesel."

But Fred Norman thinks otherwise. "I filled up a water bottle three times and never got any diesel."

Two very different views about one tank of fuel. An ongoing investigation by state agencies will to try to uncover the truth.

Both the Department of Agriculture and the TCEQ have turned over the investigations to their criminal division and penalties are still pending. The Department of Agriculture says J.R. Conoco is in violation for selling diesel before the 17th. If you filled up at the station between August 3rd through the 17th, you are asked to call the Texas Department of Agriculture at 800-835-5832.