HIS daughter was desperate for the toilet so father Paul Tonna turned to a well-known high street name for help.

But the response he got from his local Subway restaurant left him shocked and angry after they refused to let her use the facilities as he was not a paying customer.

Now he has vowed never to return to the venue again.

Paul was out shopping in Southampton with daughter Katy, 9, when she told him she suddenly needed to go.

Looking around Paul spotted the Subway on East Street and headed there.

Finding the toilet door locked he approached a member of staff at the counter and asked if they could open the door and explained the situation, but the response was no.

Thinking he was joking, Paul asked again and says he was told "no you haven't bought anything".

Even when he said his daughter was going to wet herself in the shop the answer was the same.

Asking to speak to the manager, Paul says the employee laughed and told him he was the manager and when Paul asked for contact details for the Subway head office he refused to give them.

They left and went round the corner to a Costa coffee shop a few minutes walk away which was happy for them to use its toilet.

His daughter was left upset by what happened, he said.

The 44-year-old, of Radstock Road, Woolston, pointed out that the Subway employee was not to know that he was not intending to order food afterwards.

Paul said he would regularly eat at this Subway branch but now will never go there again and may even boycott the brand completely if this is their policy.

He has asked a number of other major restaurant chain names who have all told him they would not have had a problem if he had asked them.

Paul, who runs a barber shop Pride of the South Barbers in the Bitterne Precinct, said: "I wouldn't dream of treating customers like that.

"I wouldn't stop anyone using my toilet.

"I just think it's disgusting for a multi-million pound business to do that.

"I should have said 'that's alright I'll buy a cookie', but at the end of the day I think it's wrong.

"He was prepared to let my little girl wet herself."

Subway had not responded to the Daily Echo at the time of going to press.