A bus driver has been ordered to pay his ex-employers £7500 after he was caught carrying out a sex act on a passenger in the back seat of a vehicle.
The driver, who was married at the time of the incident, performed oral sex on a woman he met on a bus and even used his Transport for London (TfL) work jacket to cover her while the pair got busy on the top deck in February 2020.
Although the driver wasn’t working at the time, the shocking events took place along his regular route and in front of other passengers, prompting unhappy travel bosses to give him the boot.
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The driver, identified as “L” in court documents, admitted to engaging in the public sex act but also claimed he was drugged and sexually assaulted by the woman’s husband when he went to their house later that evening.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
He also launched an unfair dismissal claim against his former employer and sued the company for race and marriage discrimination.
But the disgruntled employee’s story was dismissed by a judge during a hearing at Croydon Employment Tribunal and he was ultimately ordered to pay the firm’s legal costs, amounting to an eye-watering £7,500.
Employment Judge Gary Self said in the ruling: “The claimant [the driver] pursued a case which was genuinely hopeless and which he could not reasonably have expected to win.
“We find that the claimant sought to avoid the scrutiny on his activities by trying to put the blame on others by saying he had been drugged.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The driver’s questionable dalliance was brought to light after an anonymous member of the public made a complaint to the unnamed bus company shortly after the incident, claiming a man and a woman were at the back and the woman was “moaning and raising her voice”.
He was also caught on CCTV with his arm around the woman as they went upstairs.
They could then be seen kissing with his hand down her leggings.
When asked by depot managers about the incident two months later, he said: “I knew this would come back and bite me, I thought the CCTV would be deleted by now.”
It was also found the driver had been looking at his phone while driving and had damaged the wing mirror by hitting a tree.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“L” said he had been scrolling through pictures on his mobile to show an angry passenger photos of his children – but this excuse was rejected by the panel.
After his shift finished, the driver went to a pub with the female passenger before returning to the bus and engaging in the sex acts.
“L” also claimed he went to the woman’s house later where he alleged his coffee was spiked and he was sexually assaulted – but this claim was described as a “smoke screen”.
The panel’s ruling read: “We unhesitatingly reject them [the claims] on the information put before us.
“We are satisfied that the claimant’s motive for making these allegations are as a form of smoke screen and distraction away from his own acts, for which he is gravely embarrassed.
“The claimant’s case was at many points contradictory and we were left with the impression of an individual who was doggedly refusing to take any responsibility for his own actions, liberally casting blame and allegations on others when the responsibility for his dismissal lay with himself and his own actions.
“We have absolutely no hesitation in concluding that this was a fair dismissal and the claim of unfair dismissal is rejected.”
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