A coach driver who left two young boys on a school bus for six hours has spoken out to defend his actions.
Grayson Gene Tuck-Lee, from Brisbane, was fined $1000 after pleading guilty to leaving a child in a motor vehicle last year, but is now appealing the severity of the sentence.
One mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said her 4-year-old son was left covered in sweat and urine after the ordeal.
But Tuck-Lee has accused her of exaggerating the incident, saying the boy "had a full on f***ing fun day on the bus, sitting in the driver's chair and playing with the panel."
"Now I'm copping it for it," he told the Brisbane Times.
The incident happened on October 24 last year when the mother put her child on to the school bus with his siblings around 8.30am, she said.
In his defence, he said the boys were not sat in the pre-school section and had hidden down at the back of the bus.Tuck-Lee, who was filling-in for a regular colleague, dropped the older children off at school, but instead of driving to the nearby primary school to drop the two remaining children off, he drove back to the depot.
For the next six hours, the pair sat on the coach, with the mother of one of the boys saying they were too afraid to eat their lunches or drink water because eating and drinking on the coach is not normally allowed.
Another driver eventually found the pair at 2.30pm when they were taken back to the school and handed back to their parents.
The mother of one of the boys said her son was covered in sweat, smelled like urine, and his face was pale and splotchy from crying.
She added that the school failed to tell her that the boy had not turned up to classes.
Tuck-Lee is due in court again on February 16 to seek a lesser penalty. He says he is not disputing the fine, but wants a criminal element of the charge dropped because it is affecting his other business as a contract mechanic.
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