A FURIOUS father today accused the RAC of leaving him and his family stuck at a motorway service station with their broken-down car.

But the roadside recovery organisation defended their decision and said they had warned the family against continuing the journey in their B-reg Nissan Micra, which broke down four times on a return trip from Blackburn to Leicester.

Father-of-three Moosa Mapara, who has been a member of the RAC for six years, had travelled to see a sick relative with his wife Fatima and children Talha, nine, Zakariyya, six, and two-and-a-half-year-old Danyal.

They were returning home on the M6 when their car conked out.

Mr Mapara said: "The last time the car broke down it was 1am, dark and cold.

"My children were frightened and hungry.

"The RAC man told me I would have to pay £300 if I wanted to him to take us back to Blackburn.

"I had no money and nowhere to turn. It was terrible. I never felt so much in danger in my whole life. "I pleaded for help and a passer-by also called the RAC to explain our situation but they flatly refused to come back.

"They said they couldn't keep coming out for the same problem. We would never have continued our journey if the RAC had advised us not to."

Relatives rallied round to arrange picking up the family and towing the car.

They eventually arrived back at their home in Bargee Close at 6pm on Easter Monday -- 17 hours after they set off from Leicester.

But a spokesman for the RAC said they had acted in the interests of their six million other customers.

He added: "Our customer broke down several times on the journey. During one of our calls out to him he was advised there were serious valve problems that could not be repaired at the roadside.

"According to the terms of Mr Mapara's membership he had one right to a tow and he chose to continue his journey to Leicester rather than going back home.

"When the vehicle was inspected in Leicester, Mr Mapara refused repair work and was told he could continue his own journey at his own risk.

"When he consequently broke down he had already used his entitlement for a tow.

"We were happy to tow him to safety but could not do anything more free of charge because he had failed to take steps to rectify the original problem.

"We have a duty to keep cost down to a minimum for our six million customers."

Pictured are brothers Zakariyya, Talha and Danyal Mapara.