A father is suing a private school to get back £125,000 he paid in fees after his son left with only one GCSE pass.

Scott Craddock, 57, worked abroad to scrape together the £28,000-a-year fees for his son David to attend the private Abbotsholme School for five years.

Now he says he wants the money back, claiming the college in Rocester, Staffordshire, failed to deliver on its promises of academic success and his son would have been better off going to the local comprehensive.

In my opinion the school is not value for money in any way, shape or form. Scott Craddock

It comes after David, aged 17, left with just one GCSE - a C grade in science - out of the eight he had sat exams for.

Mr Craddock said that his son is not "thick" and that GCSE and A Level grades were down across the board.

The retired truck driver has now served legal papers on headmaster Steve Fairclough and the chairman of the governors at the school's summer gathering.

He insisted that he had paid to give his son a "leg up in life" but instead had been "ripped off" by a school that did not "do what they said on the tin".

"They are obliged to meet certain results and should be held accountable for not providing the standards they should be achieving," he added.

"The only thing he came away from Abbotsholme with differently is that his best friend is the son of a Russian oligarch.

"Otherwise he might as well have gone the local comp."

Abbotsholme School caters to boys and girl aged between two and 18 Credit: SWNS

David is now studying arboriculture and horticulture at Reaseheath College, in Nantwich, Cheshire, and has passed the second part of his horticulture diploma with merits.

He is also re-sitting his Science and Maths GCSE's.

Abbotsholme School headmaster Mr Fairclough admitted that last year's results were "not as good" as previous years but said he could not comment on Mr Craddock's case "for legal reasons".

"In regard to last year's results, we recognised at the time that our results were not as good as in previous years, and have taken a number of steps this year - and for future years - to reverse this situation," he said.

"In doing so, we are now on course to receive excellent results this year due to the hard work of all the teaching staff."