A BUS driver threw an 89-year-old woman off his bus after she stumbled, claiming she was not fit to travel alone.

The elderly lady, who uses a walker, was being assisted onto the First bus when she appeared to momentarily lose her balance.

The driver insisted that she get off his vehicle, leaving her stranded nearly 18 miles from her home.

She was only allowed to continue her journey when a Good Samaritan confronted him and he was forced to call his boss to the scene.

Stacey McMillan was helping the lady, who she knew only as Betty, onto the bus when the incident happened.

Carer Stacey said that she had been in Musselburgh with her mother last Friday when she saw Betty being given a seat by staff at Boots.

She went to see if she could help and said that Betty told her she could not find her bus pass.

Stacey helped her find it and offererd to walk with her to the bus stop.

Stacey said: “Betty said she was grateful for the help but felt too warm and asked my mum and I to sit and have a coffee before seeing her off.

“Once seated, I found out Betty was 89 years old and had travelled from North Berwick for a day out.” Stacey and her mother then walked Betty to the bus stop to catch the X24 back to North Berwick, but as they helped her find her seat she stumbled, sparking a reaction from the bus driver.

Stacey said: “The bus driver asked: ‘Are you accompanying this lady?’ “I replied no, we were just seeing she was on the bus safely.

“The bus driver replied: ‘What do I look like, her sister? Unless you accompany her I refuse to let her stay on.’” Stacey said that she helped Betty, who was embarrassed and confused by the outburst in front of other passengers, back off the vehicle while her mother argued with the driver.

The driver called his manager, who arrived and told him to let Betty on the bus.

Stacey said: “I was beyond disgusted and shocked by what the driver said.” First Scotland East, which runs the service, apologised for the incident and said that it should never have happened.

While Musselburgh councillor Stuart Currie desrcibed it as “disgraceful”.

Mr Currie told the Courier said: “This is a disgraceful incident for anyone to be put through.

“In my view, this is direct discrimination by a bus company, which is not only unacceptable but unlawful.

“Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect and First bus have clearly failed.” A spokesperson for First said: “We carry thousands of passengers on our services every day and pride ourselves on delivering the best service possible to our customers.

“Unfortunately, this did not happen on the X24 on Friday and we’d like to apologise to the lady concerned.

“We’ll be making contact with her directly to do so.

“While our controller did attend the location to confirm she was able to travel, we appreciate this situation should not have arisen in the first place. We will be speaking to the driver concerned to ensure this is not repeated.”