'My car drove 178 miles while I was in Spain - but East Midlands Airport says it never moved'

East Midlands Airport has denied a furious Nottinghamshire customer's claim that his car was driven 178 miles when it was supposed to be parked. Ashley Hopkins, 74, from East Bridgford, handed his Toyota C-HR over to East Midland Airport's Meet and Greet service on September 9 - ready for a week-long stay in sunny Majorca.

But when the East Bridgford retiree returned to the UK on September 16 he was confused by his burnt orange car's sharp uptick in mileage and lack of fuel. Mr Hopkins had been prompted by his wife to take down a note of the number on the car's odometer before they jetted off to Spain, as she had watched a TV documentary that encouraged people to do so, and found the vehicle's mileage had increased by 178 miles when he got back behind the wheel.

East Midlands Airport has denied that any of its workers misused the car, explaining that tracking and CCTV had shown it had not been moved from a secure storage space, but Mr Hopkins is not convinced. "I only use it for piddling about and it had almost a full tank when I dropped it off, but when I came back it was at just over half," he said.

"They say there's no evidence to support what I am saying, but my odometer and fuel tank can't be wrong. It must have been taken off the premises, unless the car was just driven around the car park or the storage area is just miles away."

He added his car's battery had gone flat and not been charging shortly after he got it back, which he found "strange" as the four-year-old vehicle had never had problems before. Mr Hopkins claimed that after he complained to EMA's customer services he had been told that if he wanted to take it further he would have to inform Leicestershire Police.

"They told me to go to the police so they could start a criminal investigation, but they'll just say it's a civil matter. It's about the principle of it all, I want to know why someone has been driving around in my car without my permission.

"Had they just said sorry I would have said fine and got on with it. They have just denied it and implied that I am a liar or reading something wrong."

Mr Hopkins added that his questions about how far the storage area was away from the drop-off point and how the driver's key usage had been monitored had not been answered by the airport's customer services department. A spokesperson for East Midlands Airport said: “We have looked into the matter raised by Mr Hopkins and can find no evidence to support the suggestion that his car was driven 178 miles while he was away.

“We move hundreds of vehicles around our site every day and have systems that keep track of which vehicles are driven by which drivers, as well as recording all key movements and monitoring our site with CCTV. This shows that Mr Hopkins’ car was driven straight from the Meet and Greet area to one of our secure storage locations and remained there until he returned. His key was kept securely in a separate location throughout this time.

“We would like to assure customers that our Meet and Greet service is operated to high standards of integrity and security, offering peace of mind that vehicles are looked after carefully and safely while they are away.”