A BUS driver admitted hurling an astonishing tirade of four-letter words at an OAP passenger - but denied calling him old.

Passenger John Bustin asked driver Juan Jose Zepeda if his bus went from Victoria Place, Bright-lingsea, to Colchester.

The pensioner was stunned when dad-of-four Zepeda replied, “Are you f****** blind?”, a court heard.

Mr Bustin asked him to repeat what he had said, but the driver then swore again, said Lucy Miller, prosecuting.

Zepeda stood up clenching his fists in anger, the court heard.

A local councillor tried to intervene but was also sworn at by the angry bus driver, Mrs Miller said.

Zepeda, 37, later told police his victim started the row by telling him to change the “f****** sign” on the bus.

“Mr Zepeda said he did call him an obscene word but not ‘old’,” said Mrs Miller.

Zepeda, of Bridgefield Road, Colchester, admitted threatening and abusive behaviour during the June 12 incident.

Anna Perera, mitigating, said other passengers had asked if the bus went to Colchester, but that there had been no problems because they were polite to him.

Zepeda still drives the route for the same bus company and the two men now ignore each other, Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard.

He had been driving buses for 14 years and was of previous good character.

Fining him £370 with £75 costs, District judge David Cooper told the bus driver: “You let yourself down, and your employers as well.”