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One detective said the claimant had used force which was "proportionate and necessary"
A London bus driver who chased a thief and punched him unconscious has been sacked, following a tribunal.
Mark Hehir, who told the hearing he was seen as a "hero" by the public, was driving the 206 bus for Metroline, which runs between Wembley and Maida Vale in north-west London, when a man stole a passenger's necklace.
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 Hehir responded in self defence and then restrained the man for almost "half an hour".
Metroline told the hearing the man had returned to the bus to apologise and that Hehir had used an "excessive use of force".
The men were both arrested, however Hehir was subsequently released and told he would face no further police action.
The day after the incident on 25 June 2024, Hehir was suspended from duty and told to attend an investigation.
At a disciplinary hearing, he 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".
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 a note from a detective which said "the claimant had used force which was proportionate and necessary in the circumstances in the defence of himself and the female passenger".
Operations manager Alina Gioroc, who had heard the disciplinary case, told the tribunal she believed "that the (man) returned towards the bus with the clear intention to apologise and shake hands with the female passenger".
Gioroc continued: "When the (man) intended to shake hands with the claimant, the claimant pushed the (man) away rather than stepping away himself, and 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.
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 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".
