Video: Shop owner hits raider with champagne bottle

Neil Hanby fought off a robber at his Costcutter store. Picture: Adrian Murray,

The intruder, who was found in the cellars at the Costcutter store on Boston Spa High Street on Saturday night, was hit over the head by retail manager Neil Hanby with the bottle as he tried to make his escape. Seeing the fracas, a customer grabbed a fire extinguisher and ‘blasted him in the face with foam’.

Mr Hanby said: “I heard a noise in the cellars and, as I went down, I saw him there. He realised he was cornered and when he came up I warned him not to proceed but he did. I had a bottle of Champagne in my hand and I hit him over the head with it.

“Basically we were fighting on the stairs and we went into the corridor and we ended up fighting and falling into the fridge.

“Then a customer, a great customer, grabbed hold of a fire extinguisher and blasted him in the face with foam.”

In March, two men dressed as women and wearing wigs and hats were caught on camera allegedly demanding cash at the Post Office, just across the road from Costcutter.

Armed with a shotgun, the pair made off with money later found by police outside the Post Office, and a male member of staff was hit on the head with a crowbar trying to stop them.

Wetherby police Sgt Susan MacLachlan said the latest intruder was 5’ 10”, of medium build, and in his late 30s.

He was wearing a light grey hooded top with the hood over his head and sports trousers with stripes down the side.

Anyone with information should phone the police on 101.