Ben Hollis: Yagoona man sentenced after he attacked school students on bus

An alcoholic ‘menace’ who fought a high school student and threatened to kill another passenger in a drunken tirade on multiple bus trips in Sydney’s southwest has been jailed.

Ben Hollis has a string of offences involving Sydney buses. Picture: Jeremy Piper

An alcoholic ‘menace’ who fought a high school student and threatened to kill another passenger in a drunken tirade on multiple bus trips in Sydney’s southwest has been jailed.

Ben Hollis, 41, of Yagoona, pleaded guilty to a string of offences, including common assault, behaving in an offensive manner in a public place, intimidation, affray and wilfully intervening with the safety of others, and was sentenced at Bankstown Local Court on Thursday.

Documents tendered to court reveal Hollis challenged a 17-year-old to a fight on a bus in Bankstown about 1:50pm on March 31. He approached the student and demanded he move so he could sit down.

“Hollis grabbed him by his left shoulder and began to shake him … and challenged him to a fight which resulted in other school students intervening,” the facts state.

Once separated, Hollis began throwing his kebab at the student who then asked the driver to let him off the bus to escape.

Hollis threatened to kill a passenger onboard a bus. Picture: NCA NewsWire

According to the facts, police arrived and found Hollis who was “under the influence of alcohol” and was “loud, argumentative, incoherent and unsteady on his feet”.

Hollis told police he had consumed five cans of Woodstock bourbon before to the incident.

Police told Hollis to stop swearing in front of schoolchildren but he refused. Further police checks revealed Hollis was in breach of his bail as a result of his intoxication.

He was arrested and taken to Bankstown police station where he asked officers to grant him bail because he “needed to go home and watch the footy”, facts state.

In court on Thursday, Hollis also pleaded guilty to stalk/intimidate and behaving in an offensive manner after he verbally abused a bus driver and passengers on February 3 travelling from Parramatta to Sutherland.

The facts state Hollis yelled verbal slurs to passengers, who were primarily school children, saying “f**k off I hate you” before the bus driver stopped the bus and told him to exit the vehicle.

Before leaving the bus, Hollis, who was carrying alcohol, stood over a female stranger, headbutted the glass driver’s cabin and then egged on the bus driver to hit him.

Hollis told police he had consumed five Woodstock bourbon and colas before the incident.

Hollis also pleaded guilty to intimidation and affray in relation to another incident where he threatened to kill a passenger and have a bus driver.

On another occasion, he verbally abused a school student and screamed “I’ll kill you” and shoved a bus driver’s shoulder while saying “you’ll lose your job”. documents state.

Hollis appeared via videolink and told the court he wanted to “change and better my life” and he needed help with his alcohol addiction.

Magistrate Shane McAnulty said Hollis was his own worst enemy and was a “nasty drunk”.

“You’re on a bus with school kids and you want to fight them, that’s crazy. Everyone on that bus was terrified and the bus company is tired of you,” Mr McAnulty said.

Hollis was convicted of all offences but no penalty was recorded for Wilfully interfere with comfort or safety of others and two counts of behaving in an offensive manner in a public passenger vehicle.

He was sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment for 17 months and will be released on parole in October 2023.

On one charge of common assault, a plea of guilty was accepted and it was dismissed with no further penalty.