Bus driver who was sacked for catching thief reveals tactics on dealing with fare dodgers

A bus driver who was sacked for fighting a thief has revealed how he coped with the fare dodgers he had to deal with every day.

Mark Hehir, who drove a London bus for two years, warned it is not worth fighting with those trying to board for free.

This is despite fare dodgers costing Transport for London £165 million a year, which almost cancels out the £168 million saved by the network

Mark was hailed a hero after he was sacked in January for chasing after a thief who snatched a passenger’s necklace from around her neck in 2024.

During the scuffle, the then-60-year-old punched the man in self-defense and restrained him until police arrived.

But fare dodgers, he said, are not worth the energy, and warned drivers to not act like ‘security guards’.

He told Metro: ‘It’s all about reading the situation. Would you stop a young girl who had no fare at 11pm in the rain? No.

‘There’s an unspoken rule on buses – don’t interact with abusive people or fare dodgers. That’s for inspectors to sort out.

‘You are not employed as a bouncer, you are a driver.’

But Transport for London has been accused of ‘sheer incompetence’ after the scale of fare dodging was revealed.

Passengers were told the price rises in March, which saw costs increase across all Underground, Overground and buses, were necessary to maintain and improve existing services.

Ameer Kotecha, from the center for Government Reform, which released the figures, said: ‘What they weren’t told is that fare evasion is costing TfL almost exactly the same amount the rise was expected to generate across the entire network.

‘Before asking Londoners to dig deeper into their pocket, TfL needs to get serious about enforcement. This is not a funding problem, but sheer incompetence.

‘Almost everyone using the Tube will see people pushing through the barriers day in day out.’

An official report published last year revealed TfL staff believed fare dodging had become ‘normalised’ as they were struggling to cope with passengers who refuse to buy tickets.

TfL said that fare evasion had dropped to 3.5% from 3.9% in 2022/23. Their target is 1.5% by the end of the 2030 financial year.

A spokesperson said: ‘This builds on the work of our team of more than 500 uniformed officers already deployed across the network to deal with fare evasion and other antisocial behavior, keeping staff and customers safe.’

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