A YORK car interiors firm has secured an order and visit from ex-world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury thanks to an apprentice on work placement.

York College student Luke Burnett was taken on by custom car seat specialist Seat Surgeons, based in Strensall, York, to do the business's social media and digital marketing four days a week.

Within five weeks the 18-year-old had secured high value orders, and built up a page for the firm on social media site Instagram, attracting 2,400 followers.

Among those followers was the undefeated former WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who went on to contact Seat Surgeons to place an order for his wife Paris' car.

The former boxer Tyson Fury has 360,000 followers on Instagram but following the visit the only account he follows belongs to York's Seat Surgeons.

The company's managing director Paul Hewitt said: "I got a call at 8am, and there was this croaky voice saying he wanted some leather seats for his car.

"Like all enquiries I just took down the details and told him what we could do, and he said he wanted to bring his car to us. He told me the name was Paris and there was no more to it.

"We didn't know what time this customer was coming, so I was on my way back after a meeting in Haxby when one of my guys rang. He whispered down the phone to me 'Paul, I think Tyson Fury is here in the office'.

"There was no missing him when I got there, he is such a huge man. I said to him I think you might be someone famous, and he laughed and said 'yes I'm Tyson Fury'.

"He was so modest and honest, and so unbelievably great with us all."

The 6ft 9in boxer told Mr Hewitt he had contacted the business after seeing some of its work on pictures, posted by Luke to Seat Surgeon's Instagram account.

Luke, who was unfortunately at college studying Digital Marketing on the day Tyson visited, said: "I'd been a college in the morning, and I was about to go and sit my driving test when I got a text from Paul saying that Tyson Fury was in the office. I couldn't believe he was there, and that I missed it too!

"They sent me a picture of Tyson with the team so I put that up online straight away, and we got 500 new followers off the back of that.

"Unfortunately I didn't pass my driving test, but I'm hoping this will look really good on my portfolio.

"People couldn't believe it at college. It was all quite surreal for me, and I was really surprised that it was down to my marketing."

Tyson's order, for Scottish leather seats with a quilted diamond stitched pattern and personalised labels reading Fury, was designed by Seat Surgeon's inhouse design team, and is currently being made at the firm's partner factory in China, with Mr Hewitt due to fly out on Monday to check on progress.