The petrol crisis was revisited in court when a soldier claimed he was training to drive petrol tankers to avoid the panic experienced last month.

But oil giant Shell quickly denied Army drivers from Oxfordshire would be used in the event of another fuel crisis.

The apparent confirmation of Government plans to use troops to avoid a repeat of last month's distruption of fuel supplies emerged unexpectedly when a soldier from Dalton Barracks, Abingdon, appeared before Didcot magistrates yesterday for motoring offences. Alexander Alderman, of Pembrokeshire, who is a driver at the barracks, admitted driving a Ford Fiesta on May 9 in Abingdon without insurance or an MOT certificate.

Sabeeha Khan, defending, told the court her client was a holder of a heavy goods vehicle licence and was currently "training to drive Shell tankers in anticipation of another fuel stoppage".

Miss Khan added Alderman already had three penalty points for a motoring offence and could lose his Army HGV licence if the six points were endorsed on his licence. She described his offences as a "foolish mistake" which happened when he helped test a friend's car after it had been repaired.

Alderman was fined a total of 180 and banned from driving for a week. No extra points were added to his licence.

Afterwards, a spokesman for Shell denied servicemen and women were being trained on the company's tankers.