THE man who runs struggling Petersfield tour operator Greys Coach Travel is selling his house to refund people who lost money on cancelled day trips.

Jamie Munro made the pledge in a letter sent to those affected by the Stable Lane company’s financial problems.

They became public knowledge on November 26 when regular customer Jean Jeffery contacted the Post to say no coach turned up for her £100 day trip to Longleat on November 15.

After phone calls went straight to an answering machine, the Post visited the Greys office to find it closed.

The company’s website www.greyscoachtravel.net no longer appeared to be its own and its Facebook and Twitter pages appeared to be inactive.

Mr Munro came into the Post office in Clanfield the following day to explain the situation.

He said: “The office was shut on November 26 because I had left Petersfield at 10.30am to drive a coach for Bognor Regis travel company Woods and I did not get home until 1am today.

“My partner Wendy used to help but her mum is poorly with dementia, so if I am out driving there is nobody to run the office.

“We are in trouble as a business, and I have had to cancel four day trips, but I wrote to the customers beforehand. Everyone will be refunded, but not immediately.

“Greys is still going – on November 22 we took a coachload of 50 people to the Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall and I drove it myself.”

Mr Munro said the office had probably been shut on about six days over the past three months.

A notice on the door dated November 26 said: “Our office will be closed for the remainder of this week while we attempt to sort out our problems. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

After meeting a coach firm on November 29, Mr Munro cancelled another eight day trips scheduled between December 1 and 22. He will not arrange any more until all customers owed money are refunded.

Mr Munro’s plan to sell his home is in motion. He said: “I’ve got my house on the market, I’ve accepted an offer and it’s going through. I will pay back every single person I owe – I’ve just got into a pickle.”

The sale should be completed by the end of January and Mr Munro plans to rent for a year before reviewing his position. He said he could run the business from home if necessary rather than continuing to rent the office.

He added: “I will pay off people and try to regroup, and I want to start again – but I’m not going to say I’m going to because I don’t know, to be honest.”

Mr Munro has been a coach driver for 31 years and has run Greys Coach Travel for 17 years. Until three or four years ago it owned two coaches and at one time it had its own mechanic.

Problems began when the mechanic left and Mr Munro – who said he is “useless with a toolbox” – had to rely on garages. He said: “In 2013 both coaches were off the road in June, our busiest month, and I was getting repair bills between £20,000 and £30,000. When you add the cost of hiring coaches, it cost me £80,000. It just all came to a head a couple of weeks ago.”