Bus driver sacked after he chased down and knocked out robber

A “hero” London bus driver was sacked after he chased down and knocked out a man who stole a passenger’s necklace.

Mark Hehir had worked as a London bus driver for Metroline for about two years before the incident.

On June 25 2024, Mr Hehir was driving the 206 bus, which runs between Wembley and Maida Vale in north-west London.

A tribunal heard that a man boarded the bus, pushing past a female passenger, before snatching a necklace from around her neck and running off.

Mr Hehir chased after the man down the street and returned the necklace to the female passenger.

The man then reappeared, walking towards the bus, where he threw “the first punch” at Mr Hehir, the tribunal was told.

Mr Hehir then responded in self-defence and hit the man once, knocking him unconscious.

The tribunal was told Mr Hehir then dragged the man to the pavement and restrained him for almost “half an hour”.

The men were both arrested, however Mr Hehir was subsequently released and told he would face no further police action.

The day after the incident, Mr Hehir was suspended from duty and told to attend an investigation.

At a disciplinary hearing, Mr Hehir was told the allegations included “bringing the company into disrepute by physically assaulting a passenger” and that he also “failed to protect his and his passengers’ safety by leaving the bus unattended with engine running and chasing an assailant”.

Mr Hehir told the hearing that “he had acted instinctively in running after the (man)” and that he had left the doors open and the handbrake on.

The hearing was shown an email containing a case review note from Detective Constable Waddington, which said “the claimant had used force which was proportionate and necessary in the circumstances in the defence of himself and the female passenger”.

Mr Hehir told the hearing that when the man returned to the bus “the female passenger was scared” and that he held him on the ground as “he was frightened that the (man) would do something if he got to his feet”.

Mr Hehir told the hearing that the public’s view of his actions was that he was a “hero”.

The hearing questioned whether the man returned to the bus to “shake hands and apologise to the female passenger and the claimant”, and who threw the first punch.

Alina Gioroc, an operations manager who heard the disciplinary case, told the tribunal that she believed “that the (man) returned towards the bus with the clear intention to apologise and shake hands with the female passenger”.

Ms Gioroc continued: “When the (man) intended to shake hands with the claimant, the claimant pushed the (man) away rather than stepping away himself, and that the (man) had not been aggressive until this point.”

She found the restraining of the man for almost half an hour to be an “excessive use of force and disproportionate”, the tribunal heard.

Ms Gioroc concluded that each allegation was found and decided the claimant should be dismissed without notice for gross misconduct.

A tribunal held in Watford upheld Mr Hehir’s dismissal and said “that the genuine belief of the disciplinary and appeal managers that the claimant was guilty of gross misconduct was held on reasonable grounds and was within the band of reasonable responses open to an employer in the circumstances”.

A GoFundMe created to raise money for Mr Hehir has so far raised more than £300.

Henry Goff, 34, who works as a web developer and is behind the page, told the Press Association: “He’s a hero, he’s the kind of person that I think we all need to see and that we need more of.

“It’s a breath of fresh air in a world where sometimes we’re all worried about being paralysed when we see a difficult situation”, he added. “Mark didn’t worry about that. Mark worried about the safety of the other passengers and the injustice that he saw, and he wanted to set it right and I really admire that.

“A bus driver’s a really important job, maybe it isn’t the most well-paid job and to see that a tribunal were in favour of his employer, and he lost the job, I thought there’s no way we could leave this as it is, society in some way has got to set this right, we need more people like him not less.”

Nadine Edwards, regional officer for the Unite union, said: “Assaults against London bus drivers are on the rise and far too often not enough is being done to keep bus drivers safe from harm.

“The majority of bus companies aren’t taking driver assaults seriously and are not fully supporting their workers when incidents happen – more needs to be done by operators, Transport for London and the police to prevent assaults on these key workers.”

A Metroline spokesperson said: “The tribunal has upheld the dismissal as fair. The claimant breached protocols designed to keep staff and passengers safe, which is our priority.”