Hundreds of BP customers may have accidentally won £2,000-worth of reward points, following a competition glitch.

Customers for the oil and gas company were mistakenly given receipts claiming that they won 400,000 BP reward points as part of its ‘fuel your year’ promotion after buying petrol or other items at garages.

MoneySavingExpert.com reports it was contacted by some BP customers – including a confirmed winner in Watford – who were denied the prize wins.

BP initially informed customers that the influx of wins was a mistake and they would not receive the points, but after around 400 people were wrongfully told that they won, BP now says it will honour affected customers’ prizes in full.

The promotion started on January 5 with the intention of producing one winner each day, but during the first morning some customers were given receipts saying they automatically won rather than being entered into the draw, MoneySavingExpert said.

While a lucky customer from Watford was among the winners, it is believed the error was widespread in the UK and affected regions in Scotland.

Around 400 people have contacted BP so far after wrongly being told they had won, but it is believed the full report may be much higher.

Helen Knapman, assistant news and investigations editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “Motorists and other customers were rightly deflated when BP initially refused to pay out prize wins, although it’s good to see it’s now U-turned on this position.

“Crucially, you won’t get the cash automatically if you haven’t already complained though. So dig out old receipts from January 5 and if you’ve got a winner, get in touch with BP now – £2,000 in reward points is not to be sniffed at especially when they can be exchanged to spend at retailers, including Amazon and M&S.”

A statement given by BP to MoneySavingExpert said: “Following an error in the set-up of the BP Fuel Your Year promotion, a number of our BPme customers were wrongly informed that they had won the daily prize of 400,000 BPme loyalty points.

“Despite this being a mistake by a third-party supplier, BP will honour this prize for all the customers who have a receipt informing them that they were a winner.”

The promotion will still continue until March with one daily winner, despite its initial teething problems.

If a customer received a receipt on January 5 saying they won, they should contact bpmereawards@bp.com with the receipt attached as proof.