U.K. soldier had to sleep in car because of hotel's 'no military' policy

Citing the hotel's "no military personnel" policy, a clerk refused to accommodate a U.K. soldier while he was home on leave from Afghanistan, according to the British press.

Cpl. Tomos Stringer slept in his car after Metro Hotel turned him away in June, news organizations report.

“He was back from Afghanistan after breaking his wrist when he fell out of his truck when they were under fire. Just before he went back he wanted to go down to Surrey to help with the preparations for a friend's funeral," Gaynor Stringer, the soldier's mother, tells the Daily Post in Wales. “When he went to check in everything was fine until they asked him for ID and he produced his military pass. That’s when they refused to give him a room."

BBC News says the hotel in Woking, Surrey, has apologized, but Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth wants "an explanation of their policy." (The apology is quoted at the bottom of this Daily Mail story.)

Stringer's mother says it's "heartbreaking" to see her son treated with such disrespect. “Soldiers don’t get treated like this in America," she tells the paper. "There they are treated like heroes but here they are being treated like scum."

The Times of London says the soldier's supporters want to punish the hotel.

Source: www.usatoday.com