A grieving grandad was told to leave a Wetherspoons pub when he started crying at his table – after staff allegedly accused him of being drunk and asleep.

Fred Pruden, from Huyton in Merseyside, was having a meal with his family at the The Childwall Fiveways Hotel on February 25 – just a day after his wife's funeral.

The 83-year-old had recently lost his wife Rachel, known as Babs, to lung cancer.

Hayley Dickson, 32, said her grandad lowered his head towards the table and started crying in the pub, when a manager came over to them.

She claims the manager accused Fred of being drunk and falling asleep on the table and asked them to leave.

But a pub spokesman said it "fully backed" the actions of staff and said the group were asked to leave "due to a genuine belief that they were intoxicated".

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He also said that one of them then became "abusive towards staff."

The family deny the claims and say they "can't believe anyone could treat an 83-year-old man like that."

Hayley told the Liverpool Echo : ”My nan passed away two weeks ago and the funeral was on Monday.

"The next day my grandad was really upset so we decided to take him out for a meal and a drink.

"They were married for 60 years and had known each other for 70 years.

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"He'd had something to eat in the pub and he hadn't even touched his second glass of wine when he put his head down and started crying.

"A manager came up to us and she said he was drunk and asleep.

"She said, 'It's company policy to ask someone to leave when they are drunk and asleep'."

"I said 'excuse me he's not asleep he's crying, he's just lost his wife'.

"But she just kept repeating the same thing – that it's company policy to ask someone who is drunk and asleep to leave."

Despite asking to speak to another manager to explain the situation to them, Hayley said she was told that no one was available and she was eventually given an email address to send a complaint to.

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Hayley said: "I went back to the bar and asked for a drink for myself and the supervisor said he wasn't serving me because 'your group got told to leave before.'

"I said let me tell you what happened and he told me not to tell him what to do which I wasn't. I was livid."

Hayley said her grandad was embarrassed by the incident and still had his head down as they left the restaurant.

She said: "I wanted everyone to know how they'd treated us and that we hadn't done anything wrong.

"I think it's disgusting that they could treat an 83-year-old man like that.

"They could see that he was frail and that he was grieving."

A Wetherspoons spokesman told the Echo: “A number of customers had been in the pub for several hours and were falling asleep on the table.

“Staff asked customers to leave due to a genuine belief that they were intoxicated.

“They said they were mourning a relative who had recently passed away and that they had only had a few drinks.

“Then one of the group started to be abusive towards staff and intimidate them.

“We will not tolerate this behaviour in our pubs. We fully back the actions of our staff.”

Daily Star Online has approached the chain for further comment.

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