A petition calling for a London bus driver to be reinstated after he was sacked for tackling a mugger on his bus has topped 100,000 signatures.

62 year old Mark Hehir was sacked from his job as a bus driver in North-West London after chasing down and restraining a robber who stole a passenger’s necklace in June 2024.

He kept the man restrained for half an hour before police arrived and arrested them both, but he was later released and told he would face no more police action, after officers said he “had used force which was proportionate and necessary in the circumstances in the defence of himself and the female passenger.”

However Mr Hehir was sacked after bosses suggested the robber, who was returning to the bus and got into a further altercation with Mr Hehir, could have been aiming to shake hands with his female victim and apologise, and that the driver had brought the company into disrepute.

The petition has been started by MP Kieran Mullan while a GoFundMe page for Mr Hehir has, at time of writing, reached donations of more than £20,000.

(File picture – Yay Images).