PETROL prices in Sussex have crashed through the £4-a-gallon mark for the first time.

Drivers pulling on to the forecourt of Star Fuels, in South Coast Road, Peacehaven, were being asked to cough up an astonishing 105.9p for a litre of unleaded yesterday while diesel was priced even higher - at 106.9p.

Other garages are now expected to follow suit, with increases across the county predicted as the price of oil remains unstable.

Motorists said they were dismayed at the increase in prices.

Nikki Sitwell, 35, of Bernard Lane, Eastbourne, said: "It's disgusting. Before I got a fuel card I was being paid 10p a mile at work which wasn't covering anything. I used to put in £30 a week but it's a lot more now."

Esther Thomson, 36, of Balkington Avenue, Worthing, travels between her home and Eastbourne every day.

She said: "I put in nearly £40 a week and it's just going quicker and quicker. When is it going to stop?"

Star Fuels owner Stephen Manklow , said: "I'd love to be able to sell the fuel at the prices supermarkets can but we can't sell it as a loss leader like them.

"We don't have the buying power. If it were legal it would be cheaper to fill up my fuel at the supermarket and sell it on my forecourt.

"We are a 24-hour station and the price reflects the overall costs of running it.

"We're trying to be more of a convenience store. There's no money in petrol."

But Kay Joyce, of PetrolPrices.com, a website tracking changes in prices, said: "105.9p is mad. The maximum in the country is 106.9p."

The Argus reported last month that the price of unleaded had hit the £1-a-litre mark in Sussex for the first time.

Prices at Q8 petrol station in Wivelsfield was leading the way with a 102.5p price tag for a litre of unleaded.

A spokesman for The AA Motoring Trust said: "Prices have pretty much stabilised at around 96.8p though there are exceptions where you find very high prices at more than a pound.

"It was going up by 2p a week recently but it has stopped in the last few days."

The UK average price for fuel yesterday in the UK was 96.81p for petrol and 99.09p for diesel.

The cheapest price nationwide is now 92.9p and in Sussex it is 94.9p at Tescos in Shoreham, Sainsburys in Hove, Asda in Brighton and Esso in Hove.

Concerns over oil supplies from Nigeria amid local unrest and from Iran, where geopolitical tensions are rising, have contributed to higher oil prices. The price of oil topped $73 (£38.60) a barrel on Thursday.

Vehicle management company LeasePlan has calculated that a company running a hundred Audi A4 1.9 litre TDi diesels, each doing 15,000 business miles a year, will have seen its annual fuel bill go up by almost £6,000 since January.

Yet soaring prices are not yet forcing customers on to other forms of transport. Roger French of Brighton and Hove Buses, said: "I haven't noticed a discernable increase in motorists throwing their keys down the drain but I think the trend may come when they realise £30 doesn't go very far."