IT is tempting to believe the Office of Fair Trading has been well and truly duped by the fuel industry.

Yesterday morning there was genuine optimism that consumers’ ‘guardian angel’ would show some gumption and take on an industry that has seen huge price hikes over the past 10 years.

But that was well and truly dashed as the OFT came out meekly stating it had found little or no evidence of unmerited price variations.

It even said there was no evidence that oil companies ramp up prices at the pumps when the price of crude goes up but are seemingly less hasty when it falls.

We all know that a lot of what we pay at the pumps goes on fuel duty. But we fear that any driver, on hearing that last point about price hikes during a radio bulletin, would have swerved off the road.

Let’s be frank in admitting the fuel industry is the model of the free market to the extreme.

It charges as much as it can based on demand and supply because practically every family and business in this country is a purchaser of its product.

It’s naive to complain too much about geographical disparities in price.

This is governed solely by how many outlets there are in a locale and how much they think the motorist will pay before driving a little further afield.

And motorway services will always charge through the sunroof because they have a captive market – just like the chicken fastfood outlet in the same complex compared to the High Street.

But what is disappointing is the way the OFT has swerved the issue of sudden hikes and sloth-like falls when every motorist could give chapter and verse on this.

It smacks of a desire not to take on a fight with what is a big earner for the Treasury.