source : the age
A Consumer Protection investigation into whether a discount Perth petrol chain allegedly passed off 91 fuel as premium 95 has stalled ahead of its September deadline, as the company fights to withhold documents from investigators.
Consumer Protection launched an investigation into Burk Fuel earlier this year after it was revealed samples from four stations taken in September 2025 appeared to indicate the chain was selling “premium 95” that was consistent with 91 fuel.
This masthead does not suggest there is any truth to these allegations, but that they are under investigation.
The investigation’s findings were due to be handed down in September, but both Burk and the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety have been locked in court proceedings in the State Administrative Tribunal in recent months, fighting it out over whether investigators could access documents in the inquiry.
At a tribunal hearing on Wednesday, Burk’s lawyer Paula Martino said her clients wished to exercise legal privilege over a number of documents sought by investigators, claiming they pertained to legal advice.
Her client and chief of Burk Fuel, Usman Farooq, appeared at the directions hearing dressed in Givenchy sneakers and a Louis Vuitton cushioned jacket.
Department lawyer Steven Morganti said while the government accepted legal privilege was applicable exercised over some information, there were documents still in dispute and asked for the tribunal to determine about how to move forward with potentially redacting their contents before handing them over to investigators.
The tribunal said both sides should make their submissions in the case by early October, meaning the estimated deadline for the investigation to hand down its findings would blow out by at least a month.
The department has been contacted for comment.
It is the second legal battle Burk Fuel is locked in of late, after WAtoday revealed the company was suing its landlords and alleging they tried to kick the business out of five sites around the state.
Burk Fuel lodged a writ in WA’s Supreme Court in July against five corporate entities who leased sites to the cheap fuel carrier, alleging in one instance the landlord swooped into one of its petrol stations in Arthur River in May and terminated its lease.
The company alleged one of the landlords “failed in accordance with the lease for the Arthur River site to rectify structural damage to the building … and without notice entered possession of and thereby terminated the lease for the Arthur River site”.
About two months after the landlord took back the Arthur River site, the writ claimed, it also came knocking for four of its other leases – including in Williams, Carrabin, Camillo and Beaufort River.
Burk Fuel was handed a notice to forfeit and terminate the leases.
It is currently fighting the termination and is due back in the Supreme Court at a later date. All Burk sites remain operating as usual, aside from Arthur River.
