Bus driver ‘stood between thief and distressed passenger’ before punch thrown

A bus driver has said he stood between a man and a “distressed” passenger whose necklace had been stolen before the thief threw the first punch.

A tribunal heard Mark Hehir was sacked from his job driving buses for Metroline in London after he chased down the thief and returned the necklace before the perpetrator attempted to punch him.

Mr Hehir retaliated and knocked the thief unconscious.

But despite being called a “hero”, Metroline sacked Mr Hehir from his job and subsequently an employment tribunal upheld that decision.

Speaking to LBC’s Tom Swarbrick on Thursday, Mr Hehir said he thought “I’m not letting this guy get away” after the thief “ripped” the necklace off the passenger.

Asked by Mr Swarbrick about reports he had punched the thief after he came back to the bus and offered to shake the driver’s hand or the hand of the necklace owner, Mr Hehir said: “After about 200 metres I caught the guy.

“We had a bit of a scuffle.

“He wasn’t getting away so he handed me back the necklace.

“I walked back to the bus.

“I handed the necklace to the girl who was there with the passengers outside the bus and someone said ‘He’s coming behind you’.

“So I turned around and he’s about 20 metres across the road so I turned around and the girl is clearly on CCTV putting her hand up.

“She’s distressed.

“She’s telling him to go away and I stood between them because she’s nervous.

“I stood between them and next thing the guy, as is clearly shown on CCTV, went to throw a left punch and I met him with a right punch and clearly he went down.”

He added: “Any guy in particular that’s going to rob a person is not going to come back two minutes later and apologise to the girl for robbing them.”

Mr Hehir said of the incident: “I left Wembley Paddocks on my way to Kilburn and I got to two stops beyond Harlesden High Street in north-west London and a guy jumped on the bus.

“He brushed past the girl and he noticed probably that jewellery on her neck and he just snapped the jewellery off her neck and ran off the bus down the street, so before anything kind of clicked, it’s just a thing that you think ‘OK, what do you do?’

“You have seconds to think, so I’m going ‘I’m not letting this guy get away’, you know, because you hear about it so often where there’s people on tubes, trains, buses – they’re opportunists and they wait for these people just to keep the guard down and they strike and I just… I wasn’t gonna allow it.”

Mr Hehir told the programme he now works as a barman at a bar owned by a friend in Wembley.

Shadow justice minister Dr Kieran Mullan has since launched an online petition for Mr Hehir to get his job back or receive compensation.

The MP said: “This is not justice.

“Mark Hehir stepped in to protect a passenger and recover her stolen property and for doing the right thing and putting himself in harm’s way, he lost his job.

“That is plainly wrong.

“Law-abiding people should not be punished for standing up to thugs.

“This decision sends a deeply troubling message that those who do the right thing will not be supported.

“Most people would see his actions as an instinctive attempt to defend someone who had just been robbed.

“He should be reinstated immediately or compensated.

“Acting quickly to help people in moments like this is difficult and even trained professionals can make mistakes.

“But people doing the right thing, for the right reasons, when so many look the other way need our support. Not the rule book being thrown at them.

“People using public transport have seen how often people get away with anti-social behaviour and crime and an increasing retreat by bus drivers.

“I understand why and this sort of thing will make it even harder for them.”

Earlier, an employment tribunal in Watford published its findings after Mr Hehir challenged Metroline’s decision to sack him for gross misconduct.

In its findings, the tribunal said Mr Hehir had punched the man once, knocking him unconscious, and restrained the thief for almost half an hour until police arrived.

The pair were both arrested but Mr Hehir was subsequently released.

A police case review said “the claimant had used force which was proportionate and necessary in the circumstances in the defence of himself and the female passenger”.

A GoFundMe created to raise money for Mr Hehir has so far raised more than £800.

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.”