STAGECOACH chiefs have been blasted after a bus driver drove an elderly passenger to Irvine police office and got him removed for eating a bag of chips on board.

A video of the incident shows police climbing up to the top deck of the bus to speak with the elderly passenger and escorting him towards the stairs.

Furious passengers can be heard defending the man and voicing their disgust at the police and the bus driver. The incident happened on the number 11 bus Kilmarnock to Ardrossan service as it was passing through Irvine on Thursday.

According to the passengers the incident occurred when the elderly passenger, named as ‘Patrick’, was heading home with his dinner which apparently irritated the driver who then drove him to Irvine police office to report him.

Incredibly, two police officers can be seen actually boarding the bus to remove the man.

However Stagecoach say their CCTV footage shows the man being abusive towards the driver, but they do admit how the situation was handled was “not acceptable”.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach said: “An initial view of the CCTV indicates that the way this situation was handled was not acceptable and we are following this up internally. Like many other bus operators, we don’t allow hot food to be consumed on our buses. This is entirely for the comfort of our customers. While the CCTV shows the passenger concerned was abusive to our driver, the way our policy was applied was not appropriate.” Writing on her Facebook page, the Irvine teenager who uploaded the footage, said: “I was on the bus back from Irvine ...and the driver started shouting at everyone who came on. Then the sweetest old man got on, named Patrick, had a long day, no dinner so he got a bag of chips, which the driver hated and tried to drag him off the bus. (Then he) drove the bus to the police station in Irvine.

“All he wanted was to go home and eat his chips not bothering anyone, I’ve seen people do a lot worse on the number 11.” Although the video footage is only a minute or so long, the confrontation lasted more than 15 minutes, according to passengers.