A schoolboy's dream of an apprenticeship at a motorsports company is in tatters after a letter inviting him for interview was lost in the post.

James Crawford, 16, of Chorefields, Kidlington, is revising hard for his GCSEs at Gosford Hill School and wants to become a top motorsports engineer.

When he finishes his exams, he will take up a place on a two-year motorsport engineering course at Rycote Wood College in Thame. But a lost letter has cost him the chance of doing an apprenticeship during the course at Prodrive Ltd in Banbury, which builds cars for the Subaru rally team.

James Crawford, 16, missed out on the chance of an apprenticeship when the letter offering him an interview was lost in the post

James has already done a work placement at the company and in April he applied for a full apprenticeship. It replied, saying he had been shortlisted and inviting him for interview two weeks ago, but the letter never arrived and as a result he missed the interview.

James telephoned the company explaining that the letter had been lost, but by then all the available apprenticeship places had been filled.

He said: "This lost letter has had a devastating effect on my career. I may never get this chance again."

Royal Mail spokesman Floyd Jebson, said: "Obviously we very much regret that if there was a delay with the post. It's very rare that it happens but once is once too often and we would like to offer James the best of luck in the future."