A woman has told how she was left in tears after being thrown off a bus to Uxbridge purely because she did not have an Oyster card.

Last Tuesday at 7.05am, Kay Adams, 46, boarded the 427 bus from Ealing to Uxbridge and tried to pay the £2 fare with a five pound note.

She was told by the bus driver that he did not carry change and she must provide correct change, use an Oyster card or get off the bus.

Miss Adams, who works in The Party Shop in Windsor Street, Uxbridge, offered to leave the driver the fiver until he received change over the course of the journey, but he refused and physically removed her from the bus.

Miss Adams said: "I was in tears because I had to get into work and open up. I said he must have change because not everyone uses an Oyster card, but he just said I must ask other passengers for change, which I did, and nobody responded so he chucked me off.

"The drivers don't say anything to the kids piling in through the exit doors but they are perfectly happy to chuck off a middle-aged woman.

"It concerns me what would have happened at night - would they have thrown me out on to the street then?"

"I could understand them not having change if I was trying to pay with a tenner or a twenty, but not a fiver.

"I do have an Oyster card but I had lent it to my boyfriend, and I genuinely didn't realise that he had used all the credit.

"It took me twice as long to get here, it has put me off getting the bus, and by the time I got to work, I was in a dreadful state."

Stavros Heracleous, General Manager of the Hayes bus depot, said: "It can happen, particularly early in the morning, that a bus driver will not have sufficient cash available to give change for a note.

"It is not our policy for anyone to be turned off a bus in this situation and I was sorry to learn of the incident on route 427. We are trying to identify the member of staff concerned and he will be given guidance on the correct procedure."