TESCO store staff have apologised after an 88-year-old war veteran was kept standing for more than an hour while her credit card was checked.

Anne Williams, of Ridgeway Grove, Newport, had spent £90 in the Cardiff Roadstore and had asked for £50 cashback when a query came up.

She said: "The supervisor came and fiddled with the till for a bit before taking me to a desk where lots of 'phone calls were being made.

"By this time I was tired and shaken but was not offered a seat. They asked my age, my telephone number and my post code. I had no idea what was going on.

"I had called for a taxi but when it came one of the girls went outside and said that the person it was for was not ready to go. For the first time in my life I felt like a criminal." Tesco bosses have apologised to Mrs Williams and say they are investigating.

Mrs Williams was awarded the Burma Star for nursing service in the Far East. It was while serving that she met her husband, Aneurin, then a medical officer with the RAF and later consultant radiologist at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Gwent.

Mrs Williams said: "There was money in the account. I've never been anywhere else other than Tesco for the past 20 or 30 years but now I'm in two minds whether to go again."

Barrister Martyn Kelly, Mrs Williams' son-in-law, said: "She felt humiliated and distressed. Tesco should give an explanation. A lot of older people might not want to speak out under the circumstances and it is for them as much as anything we are pressing this. "Tesco might want to give cash to the Burma Star Association."

Ted Cogdell, secretary of the Newport branch of the Burma Star Association representing Second World War Far East veterans, said: "It's shameful that a lady of this age and service to her country should be treated in this way."

A Tesco spokesman said: "We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to Mrs Williams but it is the bank system which runs the checks on cards. This is something that will have to be taken up with the bank.

"Mrs Williams should have been offered a seat. This is something the store will be investigating."