A schoolboy has been left stranded with a two-mile walk home after bus drivers have five times driven past his stop.

Jake Barnes, 11, would normally get off at the main gate at Chatham Dockyard and take a shortcut to his Gillingham home.

But since starting at the Rochester Math School in September, the Arriva double-decker has continued on the route and on one occasion only let him off three stops later.

Dad Richard Barnes describing the drivers’ actions as “akin to false imprisonment”.

“My son is not the only one affected by this. I would be particularly concerned if I had a daughter who was left to walk the streets, particularly as it is getting darker in the evening” - Richard Barnes

He is particularly annoyed because he and his wife Emma have paid out more than £120 for a bus pass for the term.

Jake, along with scores of other pupils from his school and Rochester Grammar, both in Maidstone Road, get the school bus.

His parents have had to pick up their son at various stops past the old dockyard gates in Dock Road and take him back to their home in Saxton Street.

Mr Barnes, 44, a lorry driver, said he believes the drivers refusing to stop is as a result of schoolchildren ringing the bell too much.

He said: “My son’s bus pass is only valid to the main gate, so if he is not picked up he is forced to walk.

“Seeing 11-year-old children, both boys and girls, dumped up to two miles from home by a moody driver is a disgrace, and I am sure a breach of care to their customers.

“I am sure if an adult were doing it they wouldn’t dare to refuse to stop.

“My son is not the only one affected by this. I would be particularly concerned if I had a daughter who was left to walk the streets, particularly as it is getting darker in the evening.”

Mr Barnes and his wife, a 39-year-old teaching assistant, have made official complaints to the bus company and have also visited the Gillingham depot to raise their concerns.

Arriva has apologised. Spokesman Richard Lewis said: “The problem results from children ringing the bell on school-time buses when nobody intends to get off, in turn making drivers stop unnecessarily and causing delays to services that might already have been delayed by traffic congestion or other reasons.

“It would seem that, on the occasions in question, that is what the drivers concerned had thought was happening.

“In order to avoid difficulties, we have instructed all drivers to stop at the main gate on the afternoon service 600 journey, irrespective of whether the bell has been rung or not, and hopefully that should ensure that Mr Barnes’ son experiences no further problems.”