SCOTTISH police officers wasted more than £2000 of taxpayers’ money last year after filling their patrol vehicles with the wrong fuel.

Police Scotland officers got it wrong at the fuel pump 16 times, leaving vehicles having to be taken off the road for costly repairs.

Across the UK, police officers mistakenly filled up with the wrong fuel nearly 300 times in 2017, costing the taxpayer more than £50,000 to correct the blunder.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance said the figures, released following a Freedom of Information investigation by the Press Association, were “staggering”.

John O’Connell, chief executive of pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This careless attitude shows a lack of respect for those same taxpayers who both pay their wages and are forced to pay for the repairs. It’s staggering that such a simple mistake is being made almost daily.”

Details of Police Scotland’s fuel blunders emerged as the force remains under the spotlight over how it spends its £1.1billion budget.

A recent report showed Police Scotland has spent more than £115million on overtime payments since it was created five years ago.

But it also emerged at the weekend that new police recruits have been told to bring their own paper to training sessions if they want printed lesson notes, with printer cartridges apparently only distributed if they are deemed “business critical”.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘The number of misfuelling incidents which have occurred with Police Scotland is rare and therefore the figure is small.”

Edmund King, AA president, said: “Perhaps we need a little more detective work at the pumps to ensure that the right fuel goes in the right car.

“Until all police cars are electric we will probably still see misfuelling problems.”