{"id":399238,"date":"2026-01-30T18:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/399238\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:48:11","slug":"mark-hehir-update-in-case-of-hero-london-bus-driver-who-chased-down-necklace-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/399238\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Hehir: Update in case of \u2018hero\u2019 London bus driver who chased down necklace thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A bus driver who was dismissed after intervening to retrieve a passenger\u2019s stolen necklace<\/a> has seen thousands of pounds raised in his support. <\/p>\n

Mark Hehir, 62, from north-west London, was sacked by Metroline following an incident where he pursued a thief who had snatched a passenger\u2019s jewellery.<\/p>\n

An employment tribunal heard that after Mr Hehir successfully recovered the necklace, the thief attempted to punch him. The driver retaliated, knocking the assailant unconscious. <\/p>\n

Despite being hailed as a \u201chero\u201d for his actions, Metroline terminated his employment, a decision later upheld by the tribunal.<\/p>\n

In the wake of his dismissal, a GoFundMe page established for Mr Hehir has garnered over \u00a34,500. <\/p>\n

Additionally, an online petition advocating for his reinstatement has attracted more than 6,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Mr Hehir told the Metro: \u201cI\u2019m not a guy who attacks people, but I will defend people in trouble, which has unfortunately proved to be my downfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

A tribunal upheld Metroline\u2019s decision (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

He also revealed that he volunteered for months in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of the country in 2022.<\/p>\n

Henry Goff, 34, who works as a web developer and is behind the GoFundMe page, said: \u201cHe\u2019s a hero, he\u2019s the kind of person that I think we all need to see and that we need more of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Goff said the money raised \u201cmakes me so happy, I went to bed with a smile on my face, I woke up with a clearly bigger one\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI keep dreaming of the moment where this number gets even bigger, and I can go take him for a pint, a pint of Guinness probably.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me so happy, this is civil justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Robert Jenrick has posted in support of the bus driver (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick<\/a> posted on X in support of Mr Hehir, saying that \u201cMetroline should reinstate Mark and apologise for their disgraceful conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shadow Tory justice minister Kieran Mullan launched the online petition for Metroline to \u201creinstate or compensate\u201d Mr Hehir\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

The MP said: \u201cThis 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\u2019s way, he lost his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people would see his actions as an instinctive attempt to defend someone who had just been robbed. He should be reinstated immediately or compensated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform UK\u2019s London 2028 mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham also posted on X: \u201cIf I become mayor of London then I\u2019ll tell Metroline that unless they give Mark Hehir his job back, they can forget any future contracts with Transport for London.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder my watch, Londoners won\u2019t fund companies that punish heroes for standing up to criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-399238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}