A disabled man in a wheelchair was shocked when a driver threatened to remove him from a bus at night because his pass would not scan.

Lee Pay, 47, who has cerebral palsy, boarded the Brighton and Hove Buses Number 48 to his home in Moulsecoomb but was told he would be thrown off because his council-issued disability bus pass, which allows him free travel, did not work on the scanner.

He was only saved from being forced to leave the bus at 10 o’clock at night after his fellow passengers protested.

Mr Pay was then forced to pay 50p to go home.

Mr Pay, of Selsfield Drive, Brighton, said: “I had a good night seeing The Lady Boys of Bangkok with mum when we got on the bus and scanned my pass on the machine.

“He said ‘you’re not coming on the bus’ and my mum argued with him.

“A lot of the other passengers came forwards saying ‘let him get on’, before he made me pay 50p for a ticket to board.

“He could see the date on the bus pass and that it was valid, so he should have let me on the bus and used his discretion.

“He was ignorant not to and everyone was saying he was a jobsworth.

“I could have been stuck at night waiting for the next bus to come.”

Mr Pay’s cerebral palsy affects his movement and co-ordination.

He was able to walk but was confined to a wheelchair after being run over by a taxi reversing in one-way North Road in Brighton city centre four years ago.

He said following that incident he attended the Brighton and Hove Buses depot in Conway Street, Hove, to complain about the incident and ask for a letter of apology from managing director Martin Harris, which he is still waiting to receive.

In a statement the firm, which is the biggest bus operator in the city, apologised for the “regrettable” incident and said it had taken “appropriate action” against the driver.

The bus firm’s accessibility and communities manager Victoria Garcia said: “This was a very unfortunate and regrettable incident and absolutely shouldn’t have happened.

“It must have been an awful experience and I really feel for him.

“We’ve been asked by Brighton and Hove Council to request all concessionary passes be scanned and then to remove all those that do not scan correctly.

“Lee’s card didn’t work but instead of issuing him a free one-day saver as is our policy in these circumstances, the driver wrongly asked him to pay the fare.

“Irrespective of the pass not scanning, Brighton and Hove Buses has a policy of never refusing travel to a vulnerable passenger.

“Clearly, we fell well below our standard in this instance. I want to apologise to Lee personally for that.

“As a direct result of this incident we’ve been liaising with the council about speeding up the process for issuing a new pass for vulnerable people as well as relaxing the rule around scanning passes for those who simply cannot physically manage it as in Lee’s case.

“There is a letter on its way to Lee explaining all this, as promised.

“In the meantime, we issued Lee with a week’s worth of free saver tickets while he waited for his new pass from the council, have spoken to Lee and his mum on more than one occasion, have offered to work with Lee around confidence-building for bus travel and have taken appropriate action against the driver.”

Mr Pay said he has since been issued with a new working bus pass by Brighton and Hove City Council.

Disabled people’s bus passes are given to those across the city with qualifying disabilities or those who are not permitted to drive because of medical condition entitling them to free bus travel within permitted hours.