Plan B Forum

These astonishing pictures show the moment a 71-year-old have-a-go-hero thwarted a gang of sledgehammer-wielding robbers with his bare hands and snatched back £22,000 of stolen watches.

Michael Graver confronted the four armed men after they smashed their way into a jewellers in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on February 28 last year.

Mr Graver was innocently shopping with his wife when he ran to wrestle with the thugs as they poured out of the shop’s doorway.

The other two crooks are seen catching up with the scooters and the four thugs make their getaway.

Mr Graver, who lives in the town, said: 'I ran into the shop to see what was going on. I wasn’t aware there was anybody holding a sledgehammer.

'I did then see the man with a sledgehammer. He looked at me. I looked at him. I didn’t really feel threatened.

'I didn’t feel he was going to smash my head in. He wanted to get out.'

The two scooters used by the gang, who had all been wearing black crash helmets in the raid, were stolen in London and later found abandoned nearby.

The gang were eventually caught after a joint investigation involving Suffolk, Northamptonshire and London Metropolitan police forces.

Dwayne Marsh, 34, was last week found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery following a three-day trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

During his trial Andrew Shaw, prosecuting, said Marsh had not been in Bury St Edmunds when the robbery took place but played an important role in the crime by hiring a van in which the two scooters were moved to Suffolk.

Marsh accepted he had hired a van but told the jury it had been on behalf of a man known only to him as ‘Martin’ and with no knowledge that it was going to be used in connection with the robbery.

He will be sentenced on a date yet to be fixed with four others, who have already pleaded guilty to the robbery.