THE RAC has apologised to a York motorist for providing a "completely unacceptable service" when a tyre on his car burst and he was stranded at Gretna Green services for 15 hours.

Teacher Adam Victor said he and his wife intended to drive to Skye last weekend to go camping for a week after finishing a stressful half term of teaching.

But during their journey, at about 6.30pm last Friday, a tyre burst and they called the RAC, who said they were busy but would be with them within 90 minutes to fit a spare tyre.

He said the RAC was unable to locate a patrol and arranged for a truck to tow them to Gretna Services, where another recovery vehicle was intended to take them to their hotel.

But when they got to Gretna at 11pm, the RAC rang to say no tow trucks were available and he was essentially stranded.

“I was staggered, as this contradicted everything that they had been saying for over four hours,” he said.

He fortunately managed to get a room at a hotel but the next day, having been told the RAC would send a tow truck out early to take the car to Carlisle to get a new tyre fitted, he was told there had been a further "miscommunication" and no truck would be available before 10am. He said a new tyre was eventually fitted in Carlisle, "16 hours deep into a disaster caused by a burst tyre".

An RAC spokesman told The Press: “We are sorry that the level of service we provided after the breakdown was not up to our usual high standard.

“We are fully investigating what happened, and are in contact with the customer with a view to resolving things to their satisfaction.”

Mr Victor, from the Hull Road area, said he was finally able to enjoy his holiday and a customer care executive had told him the RAC was going to pay for the tyre and reimburse the cost of a missed hotel booking.

The executive told him: “The service we provided was completely unacceptable and steps have been taken to help prevent any future recurrence. This investigation has highlighted the lack of communication being the key error by our breakdown specialists. I’m very sorry for what happened. However I assure you this is not typical of our normal level of service.”