A “Father” Christmas has slammed Dart Charge staff as “imbeciles” after receiving fine threats despite paying his toll.

Great-grandfather Harry Christmas has received an apology after he was posted two letters warning he may have to pay up to £140 for two crossings he made for a holiday in Essex.

Mr Christmas, 85, of The Street, Horton Kirby, paid for both crossings over the phone and received reference numbers for each payment. Despite this, he said he later had to spend hours on the phone explaining to Dart Charge staff that he had already paid.

Highways England, the government company running Dart Charge, admitted an error had been made and has dropped threats of a formal fine.

However, Mr Christmas said that this was not enough and demanded an apology.

He said: “I have been put through a great deal of inconvenience. Dart Charge has cost me a lot of money [in phone call charges], a lot of time and a lot of aggravation.

“I demanded to be put through to a manager but all the guy on the phone said he could do was email his boss.

"The guys I spoke to were extremely friendly, but I would have been better ringing one of my four great-grandchildren.

"The guys running Dart Charge are imbeciles. They are completely out of their depth."

Mr Christmas received two letters with the heading Penalty Charge Notice each telling him he had 14 days to pay a reduced fine of £35 or else it would rise to £70.

"The guys I spoke to were extremely friendly, but I would have been better ringing one of my four great-grandchildren." - Harry Christmas

Despite this, Highways England claimed that this was in fact not a penalty charge notice, but a request for him to contact Dart Charge to discuss a discrepancy on his account and avoid receiving a fine.

Mr Christmas did not accept this, as the wording of the letter suggested that he was being asked to pay a formal fine.

A Highways England spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for the amount of time this has taken from Mr Christmas, but we would say that in terms of overall numbers the amount of issues we get are not very high.

“We are aiming to get everything 100% right first time. There are occasional issues with bank payments not going into the right account, but Mr Christmas did exactly the right thing by contacting us.”