A 33-YEAR-OLD woman was left “baffled” when staff at a car wash refused to accept 20p in coppers.

Caroline Hemingway had returned from being on holiday and wanted to get her partner’s car cleaned.

She went to ARC car wash, in Eynsham Drive, Thamesmead, and queued up for a £3.70 basic wash.

But when she went to pay the bill she was told the company did not accept coppers.

Miss Hemingway, of Abbey Road, Belvedere, explained: “He said ‘we can’t accept that’. I looked and he was pointing at the coins saying ‘the red ones’.

“I was a little bit baffled and I was laughing because I was so shocked. It’s legal tender and was only about 20p.”

She added: “The person never apologised. He just kept saying ‘it’s company policy’.”

Miss Hemingway managed to find some silver coins to pay with and the car was then cleaned.

She said: “I was a little bit annoyed because I would like to have turned around and gone elsewhere or done it myself but I couldn’t because I was in a queue.

“There were four cars behind us and one was honking impatiently.”

ARC car wash is part of the IMO Car Wash Group, which claims on it’s website to be “the largest dedicated car wash company in the world”.

Director of IMO Steve Miles said: “It is company policy to accept all legal tender. We will be apologising to the customer and dealing with the operator internally.”