A man who became an internet sensation after sharing his Mars bar without the ripple was handed £2 in compensation.

Harry Seager’s picture of his smooth Mars confectionery bar inspired interest from thousands of members of the Dull Men’s Club Facebook page.

Seager said he wasn’t interested in receiving compensation for his underdeveloped bar but just wanted to find out “what industrial process might have caused the ripple to not be on the top”.

Seager said he was on the way to a classic car show in Birmingham with his friends on a vintage bus when he spotted the strange smoothness of his Mars after purchasing it from an Oxfordshire service station.

“I’d actually forgotten about it, and then the next day, I remembered,” he said. “And I thought, Oh, you know what? I’ll send them a message and find out. You know, maybe something’s been missed out, and it’s not been spotted.”

The 34-year-old broadcaster from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire had even wondered if Mars’s signature ripple had been phased out completely. Mars Wrigley UK was skittish and would not explain what had gone wrong.

“They were very secretive about it, like they instantly went on to the compensation, yeah, rather than tell me what the manufacturing defect was.”

The corporation said earlier this month the bar “slipped” through its production line and reassured consumers that the ripple was here to stay.

Members of the Dull Men’s Club told Seager the bar had escaped being blown by air by a machine called an enrober. “It tasted the same,” said Seager. “It just was a lot thinner on top that’s all – not quite as thick.”

Mars bars were first made by hand in Slough, Berkshire, in 1932 and are still manufactured in the town. They are the most popular chocolate bars in the UK.

Seager thinks there might be a future in defective chocolates. “[It’s a] bit like buying broken biscuits, isn’t it? They should do broken chocolate bars. That’s a good idea.”