AN OUTRAGED mum has claimed overzealous staff at Westcliff train station held her autistic son for an hour after he was accused of fare evasion.

Meera Shahid was horrified after she was called to the station by her 19-year-old-son, where he was allegedly surrounded by seven people.

She claims staff were questioning him on his autism diagnosis and accusing him of being a fare dodger.

Meera’s son, who has both ADHD and autism, purchased a train ticket from Westcliff to West Ham for college on Sunday, but claims the ticket machine was broken and the queue for the ticket booth was so long he was waved through barriers by staff.

On his return journey, he was stopped without a ticket by station staff who allegedly held him for an hour.

According to Meera, he was unable to articulate that he had purchased a ticket and was “not allowed to show proof of purchase.”

c2c has said an investigation is underway into the incident on Monday.

Meera said: “I am just shocked, truly. What I find so shocking is that I think to myself in the light of day, all they had to do is check if he had a ticket and if they were going to do anything, tell him that before he travels, he should get a ticket out of the machine.

“My son said that by the time I got there, he had shut down, he couldn’t speak, and he couldn’t get his words out and they said he was being obstructive.

“He has autism and anxiety, and they had him there for an hour.”

Police were also called to the station during the incident, according to Meera.

Meera added: “I seriously don’t know why the police came. He wasn’t aggressive or violent, he just stood there and he would not do anything at all.

“The idea of that would stress him out.

“They made up their mind he was a fare evader and that he needed to be made an example of.”

A c2c spokesman said: “We are aware of the incident that took place at Westcliff station on Monday 7 October. Currently, our security team is investigating.”