A FURIOUS son claims his 70-year-old widowed mother was thrown off a bus miles from home by an over-zealous driver who claimed the pensioner's bus pass was void.

Philip Ashton says his mother, Mrs Kathleen Swift, from Clinkham Wood, was on her way to an appointment at St Helens hospital.

Mr Ashton told the Star she boarded the number 50 Timeline bus in the town centre using her pass. During the journey the female driver asked to see the pass again and confiscated it after telling Mrs Swift that the picture was defaced.

The distraught pensioner explained that she had no money with her but, according to Mr Ashton, the driver simply shrugged her shoulders and said that wasn't her problem.

"The driver's actions were disgraceful. My mother is a 70-year old pensioner and this woman just put her onto the street with no money. Anything could have happened. My mother was very upset by the whole incident.

"Fortunately, she had 10p in her pocket and was able to ring me, but she was approached by a man before I could get there and the incident has left her very nervous about going out again."

And he added: "My mother wasn't even given an official receipt by the driver. All she got was a hand-written note scribbled on the back of a dirty, crumpled Save-away ticket form."

Richard Brunt, area manager with Timeline said he had no comment to make on the incident and didn't know anything about it.

But Mr Ashton said that the family were so incensed by Timeline's treatment of his mother that they were considering legal action.

A spokesman for Merseytravel who issue the bus passes, said: "It is an offence to use a pass which is out of date or has an obscure picture and drivers do have the right to withdraw them. However, we leave it up to the individual driver's discretion whether he or she chooses to enact this rule, but we will obviously be looking into the fact that the woman was left with no money.

"As for the matter of the receipt, there are no legal requirements for drivers to hand over any receipts, but a bus company who takes a pass in this way should notify Merseytravel immediately so that we can get a replacement pass sent to that person without delay."

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