Stuart Newing-Davis, 40, and his wife Sarah Ann, 42, claimed they had run the bus service to “put something back into the community”.

Their company, Bankfoot Buses, based in the Perthshire village, asked passengers only to put money into a charity bucket to help restore a local Episcopal church, where the couple served as organist and treasurer.

But the deputy traffic commissioner for Scotland, Tom McCartney, said they were “not Robin Hoods” and banned them from operating, fining them £1650.

At a public inquiry into the company, it was found that they had “impersonated” transport giant Stagecoach by branding some buses “Stag Coach” and issuing drivers with uniforms similar to their rivals.

The company was also found guilty of lying to regulatory authorities, failing to register their services and interfering with bus stop arrangements in Perth city centre.

Mr McCartney said: “Stuart Newing-Davis has been described as ‘a lovable rogue’. He is not Robin Hood. He has committed forgery, lied to the regulatory authorities and appeal authority and failed to run a bus service sensibly and responsibly, much to the frustration of the local council.”

Mr and Mrs Newing-Davis will now be banned indefinitely from holding or applying for a public service vehicle operator anywhere in the UK.

But Mr Newing-Davis insisted the verdict was unjust and described how loyal passengers loved the service he provided.

He said: “We have less than half a dozen buses and a modest staff, and all we want to do is provide a convenient, high-quality bus service for the local community.”

But he said he was advised to stop the free buses because Stagecoach would see them as anti-competitive.

“It is bizarre to say the least that a husband-and-wife team with three vehicles and five drivers can be seen as being anti-competitive to an operator with 3000 staff and 140 buses in Perth alone,” he said. “It’s not an image we have wanted to paint but somehow we have been seen as local crusaders, David versus Goliath.”

Perth is where the founders of Stagecoach grew up. Ann Gloag and her younger brother Brian Souter both lived in council flats in the city before starting the now multi-national company in 1980.

A Stagecoach spokesman said: “Bankfoot Buses have been involved in a shameful catalogue of serious offences, including contravention of bus regulations and trying to mislead the public, which threatened the good reputation of our industry.

“We hope that this decision will send a strong message that unprofessional behaviour and a wilful disregard of regulations will not be tolerated.”

Mr Newing-Davis is now in discussions with a specialist transport solicitor and his local Labour MP Gordon Banks about the possibility of appealing the ban.