Alan Costine, of Prestwick, is boycotting Ayr train station after a ticket booth worker messed up his journey plans.

He inserted his card to pay £80.70 for an advance ticket to Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago. But a staff member charged him the wrong amount by mistake.

Annoyingly the money had already gone through despite Alan having no ticket to show for his depleted balance.

Single Alan, 59, was then told he would have to shell out for another ticket - costing £90 on top. But there wasn’t enough left in his account after the first transaction.

He said: “After learning that I would be travelling before 9am the ticket clerk decided that she had made a mistake and the price would be higher.

“She produced a refund for my ticket and attempted to charge me the new price.

“The machine would not allow the transaction as it had decided I did not have enough money in my account.

“I was stuck with no money and no train ticket. And the money Scotrail charged me was out of my bank for a day and a half. I will never use Ayr station again.” Luckily the IT worker managed to buy a ticket on the morning he was due to travel in Prestwick on Wednesday, May 29 for only £68. By that time he had been refunded.

He was on his way to Aberdeen for a job interview as an IT analyst.

He said: “What a joke. No money should be charged for a ticket until it is actually produced. Also, if money can be deducted so quickly from a bank account, why is it not returned when you have a receipt to say it has been.

“If money can be deducted so quickly from a bank account, why is it not returned when you have a receipt to say it has been.” ScotRail did not reply to Ayr Advertiser requests for comment.