Pump price probe nets 3 in Westchester

Three more gas stations in Westchester County have agreed to pay penalties to the state attorney general for alleged price-gouging at the fuel pumps in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Atty. Gen, Eric T. Schneiderman previously announced that two Shell stations were among 25 businesses that agreed to settle claims they violated the state”™s price-gouging law. Two Long Island stations also agreed to penalties in the latest round of settlements, which brought total penalties to $185,000 in the state”™s continuing probe of dozens of stations.

In Harrison, operators of RBJ Service Station at 500 Halstead Ave. increased the spread between the station”™s wholesale price for gas and the retail price charged customers by 37 percent immediately following the storm, according to the attorney general.

In North White Plains, Shell of DJ’s Auto Delicious Inc., at 905 N. Broadway, the spread between wholesale and retail prices jumped 35 percent after Sandy struck.

In Yonkers, A&S Texaco Inc. at 1061 Nepperhan Ave., jacked up pump prices 34 percent from its wholesale price in the wake of the hurricane, Schneiderman said.

“As thousands of New Yorkers sat in line waiting for hours to buy critical supplies of gasoline during the state of emergency created by Hurricane Sandy, some unscrupulous business owners dramatically and illegally increased their retail prices,” Schneiderman said when announcing the settlements. “Today, we are continuing our enforcement actions against those who broke the law while their fellow citizens suffered. My office will make sure that businesses that rip off New Yorkers in a time of crisis are held accountable.”

The attorney general”™s office was flooded with hundreds of complaints of price-gouging at service stations in the days after the storm, when some areas of the state saw some of the largest jumps in gas prices in state history.