news-record.com

A Greensboro gas station has agreed to pay more than $5,400 in refunds and penalties to resolve allegations that it gouged customers by charging $5.199 a gallon on Sept. 11 and 12 last year.

State Attorney General Roy Cooper announced the settlement today with Irving Park BP, 2009 N. Elm St. in Greensboro.

The state has gotten more than $56,000 in refunds, civil penalties and energy assistance funds from gasoline price gouging investigations. Shell to Go in McLeansville previously agreed to pay.

In a complaint filed today in Wake County Superior Court, Cooper contends that LR&S Inc. overcharged consumers at two gas stations in Yadkinville. The complaint alleges that the company’s Four Sisters Center gas station at 513 E. Main St. and Yadkinville Food Mart at 909 N. State St. raised their retail prices for gas from less than $4 a gallon to as much as $5.679 a gallon within a matter of hours on Sept. 12.

Cooper was one of the attorneys general who began investigations in the fall after Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast and gasoline prices began to rise.

Cooper's office said thousands of consumers complained after the state price gouging law was triggered. His lawyers still have civil lawsuits pending against two gas stations.