March 18, 2009

ATLANTA (AP/WRDW) -- Another local gas station is in trouble for gas gouging after Hurricane Ike slammed the Gulf Coast in September.

The Pilot Travel Center at 2091 Jimmie Dyess Parkway will have to pay restitution and a $20,000 fine.

The Super Express at 3150 Wrightsboro Road was already in trouble. They had to pay a $5000 fine and restitution.

If you have receipts from those stations, you could get some money back.

More than 30 Georgia gas stations have paid fines to the state Office of Consumer Affairs over alleged price gouging.

Some stations have to pay up to $10,000 in fines to the state, while others must refund money to customers who can prove they bought gas during the price spike. The list includes a $20,000 fine against nine Tennessee-based Pilot Travel Center stations.

The stations are among 200 the state is investigating over complaints of unfairly raising gas prices when hurricanes shuttered several Gulf Coast oil refineries and left several southern states without enough gas.

Under state law, businesses have to prove they were making the same profit with their elevated prices as they were before the governor activated the anti-gouging statute.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press/WRDW. All Rights Reserved.)