Tim Watts, chairman of Pertemps and well known aficionado of high-end cars, has hit back at claims made in a newspaper article that he hurled a torrent of abuse at a bus driver after his Rolls-Royce was hit by a bus in London last week.

According to a report in London’s Evening Standard newspaper, after his Rolls-Royce Phantom was hit by the No 169 bus in Holborn, Watts boarded the bus shouting obscenities at the bus driver.

The Evening Standard reported one witness as saying that he had “never seen abuse like that”.

However, in statement to Recruiter, Watts strongly denied that he had been rude or lost his temper.

Watts told Recruiter: “My Rolls Royce was boxed in the outside lane and was clearly unable to move in either direction when the bus came up on our inside and edged towards my car.

“My chauffeur, who is an excellent driver and well used to the traffic in London, became increasingly concerned by the bus’s manoeuvring and quickly recognised that a collision was imminent because we had nowhere to go.

“He tried to alert the bus driver to the impending problem but to no avail.

“We were struck on the wheel arch and as the bus continued to pull forward it scraped along the side of my vehicle causing considerable damage.

“The bus continued without stopping, however, we wanted to make the driver aware of the collision and so when the traffic cleared I asked my chauffeur to pull up in front of the bus so I could ask the driver to exchange insurance details.

“He asked me to step on board so he could hear what I was saying, which I was happy to do.

“Once on board, the driver asked his passengers over the public address whether there had been any witnesses but in doing so said that under transport rules the passengers would have to abandon the vehicle and find alternative transport.

“I was then confronted by 20 or 30 passengers holding me responsible for their inconvenience – several were very indignant claiming that the bus had not hit my car.

“Despite this, I was never rude or lost my temper and I simply tried to explain to them they were mistaken.

“When the passengers disembarked I showed the driver where the damage had occurred but he refused to co-operate and was very rude, shouting expletives at me several times.

“I became concerned for my own safety and that of my chauffeur and passenger, Network Group finance director Spencer Jones, and so I instructed my driver to call the police.

“The driver eventually agreed to exchange details – which was all I had been asking him to do in the first place.”

A spokesperson for Arriva London told the Evening Standard that the bus driver had denied hitting Watts’ car but that there would be an internal investigation.