A father and son have driven the length of the UK in an old van fuelled solely by old cooking oil from their local fish and chip shop.

George Heming, 21, from Whitstable, filled his 1999 VW Caddy minivan with seven 25-litre drums of leftover fat - after sieving out the bits of potato.

He hit the road with dad James, 50, driving 1,000 miles from Land's End in Cornwall to John O'Groats at the northern tip of Scotland.

Remarkably the van, which cost just £400, made the journey over three days - and then managed to travel another 750 miles back to their home in Whitstable, using every last drop of the 180 litres of oil.

George took inspiration for the journey from his former radio presenter dad who in 2008 drove a chip fat-fuelled Vauxhall Midi van to present a show in Paris.

George, a videographer who also campaigns to remove plastic from the seas, said: "It was all leftover oil so stuff that the chippy pays someone else to come and take away for them.

"But I was really surprised at how economical the van was. We had 180 litres of oil on board, and that's how much we used to get there and back."

George says the economy proved similar to regular fuel but the engine did not produce as much power which was "interesting" in the more hilly regions of Scotland.

"But it just kept going and ran really well the whole time," he said.

"It was great fun to take this journey with my dad, and trying to recreate things from when he did it before."

George got 180 litres of chip fat oil for free from chippy, Ossie's Fish and Chips, in Faversham.

But he said he would be put off attempting anything like this again - by the smell of the chip oil drums inside the van.

"I haven't been able to eat fish and chips since," he said

"But for the experience, it was really cool. It was a fun few days and some of the views were amazing, especially in Scotland."

Dad James says George was more methodical about his preparations and systems than when he drove to Paris.

"I thought we might run into trouble at some point, driving all that way on chip oil. But his filtering system did its job and kept us going," he said.

"We had a great time on the road together and it was quite a surreal trip, knowing that we were being fuelled by chip oil."

After returning from their adventure, George decided to send the van off in style last week - by driving it in a banger race at Arlington Stadium in Hailsham, East Sussex.

He said: "That was quite an experience. I'd never done anything like that before.

"Sadly the van is no longer - but it had been through so much, that it felt like quite a fitting send-off."

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