A DISABLED woman said she was left 'embarrassed and tearful' after a bus driver refused to let her on board without a certificate to prove how much she weighed in her wheelchair.

Samantha Hemes, 22, suffers with dystonia – a condition which causes muscle spasms and contractions – and is reliant on a wheelchair for getting around with her 11-month old daughter, Amelia Rose.

But last Saturday, while waiting with her mum, Christine Bonsall, and daughter to board a bus from Hereford's Tesco store to her home in Newton Farm, a bus driver asked for a certificate to prove she weighed under 300kgs.

Miss Hemes said: "It's the first time that has happened. My mum was trying to get the ramp down so I could get on the bus and the driver wouldn't help her.

"Then he said he thought I was too heavy and needed a certificate to prove I wasn't."

Miss Hemes said she removed the child seat adaptor from her wheelchair but the driver still refused to allow her on board and eventually drove off.

"I was really embarrassed," said Miss Hemes. "I didn't want to cry and normally don't cry that easily but it was really embarrassing in front of lots of people. After that, another driver came to help me and made sure I got on the next bus."

Karen Pardoe, from Tupsley, saw the incident while shopping in the city.

The 40-year-old said: "You can't treat somebody like he did. I have been sat here looking at the conditions of carriage on the bus and there's nothing in the policy stating that it has to be of a certain weight or anything. I would rather not use the bus if that's how someone was allowed to talk to me."

Ady Culpin, from First Bus, said the company is undertaking a "full investigation" into the circumstances.

Police officers are also currently looking into the incident and witnesses are asked to call 101.

"From the information provided so far, it seems that our driver at the time of the incident did not deliver anywhere near the standard of customer service or assistance that we would expect from our staff. I can assure the lady concerned that we are taking this matter very seriously," Mr Culpin said.

"In response to the accusation of discrimination against wheelchair users, this is absolutely not correct. We do not discriminate against anyone using our buses, we have manual ramps fitted that should be opened/closed by the driver to allow easy access for wheelchairs onto the bus.

"This incident was obviously upsetting to the lady concerned at the time and we would like to apologise for the insensitivity and unprofessional approach allegedly given by the driver at the time."