Coach firm to pay thousands to accessible transport activist after driver lied that he threatened violence

A coach operator that passed on defamatory lies about a well-known disabled activist who exposed the inaccessibility of one of its coaches will have to pay him substantial damages, and make a humiliating apology in open court.

A driver for Bolton-based Tyrers Coaches fabricated claims about Doug Paulley (pictured), alleging he had threatened a Network Rail coordinator with violence and that he hurled swearwords at him over an access failure at Rochdale train station 13 months ago.

Tyrers had passed on the allegations to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), and another transport company, Arriva.

The incident occurred after Tyrers – which was one of the companies providing a rail replacement service on behalf of government-owned Northern Trains – had been unable to accept Paulley onto its vehicle because the relevant door was not working.

Coaches from two other companies were also not able to accept Paulley on board, with one driver not trained to operate the accessibility equipment, and the other vehicle not wheelchair-accessible.

Tyrers later told DVSA and another transport company, Arriva, that Paulley had threatened violence, was physically threatening, called its driver “a d**khead” and told him he didn’t know what he was “f***ing doing”.

Paulley later discovered by accident – when his solicitor submitted a subject access request to DVSA in connection with another discrimination case – what Tyrers had said about him.

The coach company was unaware that Paulley – who has spent years exposing access failures across the transport industry – had recorded the incident on a camera attached to his wheelchair.

He was able to use the recording to show that none of the claims made by the Tyrers driver had been true.

He decided to launch a defamation claim in the high court because of the risk of serious damage to his reputation, and – he told Disability News Service – because he wanted to address the “reprehensible”, discriminatory and dishonest behaviour of transport companies and coach drivers, and their “horrific, hateful, ableist behaviour”.

Tyrers has now agreed to pay him £7,500 in damages and a further £1,000 for a breach of data protection law.

The company will also have to write to DVSA and Arriva, making it clear that the allegations it shared were false.

And it will have to apologise in open court for the false claims it made, and for the distress and damage caused to Paulley’s reputation.

Tyrers had not commented on its actions by 11am today (Thursday).

Train company Northern has also apologised to Paulley, after one of its managers claimed in an email that he “goes around Railway Stations and tries to find fault at each location”.

The email had been sent out after Paulley complained about the Rochdale incident, in which he had been “simply trying to travel and encountered genuine accessibility barriers” with the rail replacement bus service.

He told Northern in a complaint: “When I documented these experiences, it was as part of my legitimate role as a nationally recognised transport accessibility advocate, not as malicious troublemaking.

“The suggestion that I ‘go around’ railway stations looking for problems fundamentally misrepresents evidence-based documentation of accessibility failures as some form of personal vendetta.”

He said the language used showed “a concerning institutional prejudice against disabled passengers who exercise their legal rights to document accessibility failures and hold operators accountable”.

And he said it had “contributed to the toxic atmosphere” that enabled the discriminatory behaviour by Tyrers, and the subsequent “inaccurate, defamatory allegations” that were made about him.

Paulley said Northern’s actions had created “chilling effects that may deter other disabled passengers from reporting legitimate concerns”.

Northern has now apologised in an email for the distress caused by its manager’s comments and told Paulley his campaigning was “invaluable” and “helps us learn from our mistakes” and that his work over the years “has been greatly appreciated and has played an important role in helping us improve”.

Paulley’s data protection case against another transport company is ongoing.

A Northern spokesperson said the company had no further updates to the apology issued to Doug Paulley.

But he added: “As referenced [in the emailed apology], the work that campaigners including Mr Paulley do is invaluable.

“The comments in the email about which the complaint was received are not reflective of Northern’s views, and we are truly sorry for any distress caused by these comments.”

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