A KEIGHLEY man who hired a car in Bradford was shocked to find he was not allowed to refuel it because the car had been involved in an alleged offence.

Rashid Hussain, who had hired the Toyota at the Queens Road Bradford branch of Enterprise Rent-a-car on May 4, said he tried to fill up with petrol on bank holiday Monday, May 7.

He explained: "I'd been on a family day out with my wife and young children, so I thought before going home I'd fuel up at Keighley's Morrisons petrol station. I had to return the car to Enterprise the next day at 10.30am.

"I was trying to fuel the car up but a few minutes passed and the pump hadn't ticked over to release fuel. So the shop attendant called me inside.

"When I asked what the problem was he explained they have Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera systems at the petrol station, and there was an outstanding criminal offence on the vehicle I was driving, dating from about two months back.

"By this time my wife was out of the vehicle frustrated and worried, and there were other customers that I was holding up. I was mortified and humiliated and my children were becoming distressed and unsettled.

"The attendant refused to authorise fuel for me, as he said the car already had an outstanding criminal offence of driving off without paying for fuel linked to it."

Enterprise this week said they had been unaware of any problem with the car because the original offence had not been reported to police.

Mr Hussain, 33, who is a mental health support worker and lives in Highfield, said he returned the car to the Keighley branch of Enterprise Rent-a-car on May 8.

He said he told the firm's Queens Road Bradford branch staff what had happened, and asked for an explanation, but did not get a satisfactory response.

"The person I spoke to seemed to want to brush it under the carpet," he added. "He wasn't able to tell me anything about how things had gone wrong.

"He said his area manager was away on holiday, and when I asked for the number of someone else in authority he wouldn't give me it.

"Someone somewhere has not followed the right protocol. This shouldn't be happening in 2018 when all I was doing was renting a car, because my own had broken down.

"This car should not have been offered for rental.

"Because of the offence linked to the car, I could have ended up being stopped by the police.

"Even though they'd have found out I wasn't responsible, it could have caused inconvenience, and would have been a real problem if I'd been a vulnerable person or if there was a language barrier.

"When I was refused petrol, I was lucky enough to be in Keighley. But what if I'd been on the other side of the country? I could have been stranded with my children with no petrol."

A spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings thanked the Keighley can use for bringing the matter to their attention.

The spokesman said: “We have investigated the matter and can confirm that we had not been made aware of the incident involving our vehicle.

“It involved the alleged non-payment of fuel from a supermarket by a previous renter and was not reported to police.

“We have now rectified the situation with the supermarket and regret any inconvenience caused to our customer.”