A FORMER fire hero was jailed for five-and-a-half years yesterday for causing a man's death by drunkenly grabbing the wheel of a bus.

James Christopher Glenton was once hailed a hero after rescuing a neighbour from a burning house.

But Mr Justice Holland branded him "aggressive, violent, self-centred, arrogant and completely irresponsible" for his behaviour leading up to the fatal crash in Bootham, York, last April.

York Crown Court heard Glenton's drunken antics on the Ikon and Diva nightclub service were so bad that two of his friends, as well as Egyptian Mohamed Eltahtawy, 49, moved to get away from him.

But in a bitter irony, the decision of Mr Eltahtawy, a father-of-three, cost him his life.

Nicholas Ralph, prosecuting, said Glenton had started drinking at 7pm and arrived at the nightclub at 10pm, where he had more than ten drinks.

Doorstaff ejected him at 1am for annoying people.

He caught the free bus service back to the city centre but when it reached Clifton Green he made repeated demands to driver Phillip Shelley to make an unauthorised stop at Burton Stone Lane, near his home.

When Mr Shelley drove past Bootham Crescent, Glenton said: "If you don't stop the bus, I will grab the wheel."

Seconds later he did, and the bus swerved into the perimeter wall of the Churchill Hotel, crashed into a lamp-post and then a railway bridge.

Glenton, of Rowntree Avenue, York, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His barrister, Peter Collier, QC, said he was deeply remorseful and apologised to everyone on the bus and Mr Eltahtawy's family.

He told police: "I just wanted to have a good night. I had no intention of hurting anyone."