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A panic buyer stocking up on fuel has taken things to a whole new level.

The motorist was filmed emptying water bottles she had bought at the garage moments before and filling them with petrol.

A driver queuing behind her at Cobham Services on the M25 filmed the dangerous stockpiling effort.

There are fears panic buying could lead to preventable accidents as drivers flout strict legal controls on what highly flammable fuel should be stored in.

Dad-of-six Gavin Rabbitt, 44, posted the video online and said: ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought ‘I can’t believe the stupidity of this woman’.

‘This is the kind of thing that causes the problem. People filling up things they shouldn’t be filling up and no one else can get the fuel because of other people’s stupidity.

‘The queue was all the way down the slip road. We were queuing for about 20 to 30 minutes.

‘She was all blasé and doing it right in front of me. It’s ludicrous.’

He was with his son at the time and trying to buy petrol on a trip to Aylesbury when he was forced to watch on at the hoarding in disbelief 

The panic buyer had reportedly already paid for fuel for her car before coming back with the bottles for more.

Mr Rabbitt added: ‘Originally she put one bottle in the back of the car, then poured the water out into the bin and then starting filling [it up].

‘I saw her fill up two bottles. Whether she continued to get another bottle out of the car, I don’t know.

‘She’d been into the garage and come out. They’re 1.5 litre bottles so it would have been three litres of petrol, that wouldn’t have got her far anyway.’

It is against the law to have more than 30 litres of petrol at your home and it must be stored in ‘suitable portable metal or plastic containers’.

She’s not the first driver to be pictured hoarding petrol since panic buying set in last week after a small number of stations reported shortages because of logistics problems.

The number of motorists rushing to the pumps has led to warnings as many as 90% of independent petrol outlets are facing the prospect of running out of stock.

There have also been several incidents of tempers flaring on forecourts, including once incident in Chichester which led to a full blown fistfight. 

Downing Street has again called for calm and stressed there are no shortages at British refineries.

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