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A SCOTS traveller feared he’d be stranded at a foreign airport after British Airways staff refused to accept a £20 Scottish banknote.

Jim Dunbar, 56, was told to cough up £40 for an extra baggage charge on his way back to London from Gibraltar.

He offered to pay in euros but BA check-in staff insisted on sterling as Gibraltar is UK territory.

Jim, from Forfar, handed over a £20 Bank of England note and a £20 Bank of Scotland note. They accepted the English cash but refused to take the Scottish note.

Jim, who is retired and suffers from health difficulties, was furious but was forced to back down and pay with English money when he was warned he wouldn’t be allowed to board the plane.

He said: “I was only a couple of kilos over with my baggage.

“But they told me it would cost money for them to change the Scottish note and refused to accept it. I stuck to my guns and told them to take it or leave it.

“But they said they would refuse to let me board the plane and have my bags taken off the aircraft.

“In the end, I had to back down because I was worried about being stranded in Gibraltar – but I was raging about their refusal to take the Bank of Scotland note.

“Making a complaint now isn’t going to make up for what happened but I couldn’t believe they were willing to leave a disabled man stranded over a Scottish note.”

BA said Jim’s Scottish note should have been accepted and added that they would investigate the incident if he lodged a formal complaint.

A spokesman said: “A note that is legal tender should be accepted and if it has not been then we can only apologise.”

On their website, the Bank of England state there is no such thing as legal tender.

If an English company choose not to accept Scottish cash then there is nothing the customer can do about it.

But to accommodate a wider customer base, many companies follow a policy of allowing alternative currency.