Bus driver sacked after tribunal

Metroline has sacked one of its bus drivers, who chased a thief and punched him unconscious in Greater London, following a tribunal.

Mark Hehir, who told the hearing he was seen as a ‘hero’ by the public, was driving the 206 bus, which runs between Wembley and Maida Vale, when a man stole a passenger’s necklace.

Mr Hehir gave chase and retrieved the necklace, but said the man returned to the bus to confront him, and threw ‘the first punch’.

The tribunal heard that Mr Hehir responded in self-defence, and then restrained the thief for almost ‘half an hour’; Metroline, however, told the hearing that the man had returned to the bus to apologise, and that Mr Hehir had used an ‘excessive use of force’.