AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into allegations a taxi company refused to pick up a grieving pensioner because "he smelled".

Hyndburn Council is probing claims Betty’s Coaches and Cars refused to collect 76-year-old Keith Cronshaw and his daughter from a Rishton pub.

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The pair said on requesting a taxi home from The Walmsley Arms, they were told that the company would not send a driver because of the pensioner smelled badly.

Mr Cronshaw, of James Avenue, Great Harwood has submitted a formal complaint to Hyndburn Council, which controls taxi licences in the borough.

However taxi bosses, who have run the Great Harwood-based firm for more than 35 years, said the refusal to send a car was simply down to a lack of staff on the night.

Mr Cronshaw’s daughter, Carol Pope, said: “We asked the landlady to ring for a taxi to bring us home and she asked them to repeat what they said to me.

“The switchboard operative said none of the drivers would pick him up because he smells.

“The person on the phone said he could not get anyone.

“Until this happened, my dad had used the firm for 10 months and nothing was said.”

Mr Cronshaw said he had used the service "every day" before the alleged incident on April 13 to visit his late wife, Eunice, in hospital.

Miss Pope said following an operation for gangrene around September last year, her dad now uses a wheelchair and has developed a pressure sore and foot ulcer.

She said: “They had to amputate above the knee.

“The pressure sore was from being sat in his chair while visiting my mum and the cream he uses does have a slight smell to it.

“This has had a massive impact on him, he didn’t go out for two weeks.

“We were in the pub at the time shortly after my mum passed away and he started crying.”

Mr Cronshaw said: “I thought it was disgraceful.”

The managing director of Betty’s Coaches and Cars, Gordon Kahn, said the refusal to send a car was not a personal decision but down to a lack of staff.

He said: “I was running the depot myself that evening and the service was refused due to a shortage of staff at that time of day.

“It is a concern to me that this has been said."

“We do not refuse any customer at any point.”

Cllr Miles Parkinson, Hyndburn Council leader, said: “I can confirm that a complaint had been received and officers are investigating.”