AN HEROIC pensioner who attacked a robber with his walking stick has claimed he would "do the same thing tomorrow", after seeing the man jailed for four years.

Ron Kennedy, 77, hit robber Richard Coleman after seeing him attack and rob a female assistant in a Plymouth Spar shop.

Coleman was convicted for the crime along with three other similar incidents, and will serve four concurrent four-year jail sentences.

The 32-year-old would specifically target shops staffed by women, would push them over and grab bank notes from the till.

However, during the first of four robberies he committed in less than a month in March, he was attacked by Mr Kennedy who had called into the shop to buy a lottery ticket.

After seeing the attack he struck Coleman with his walking stick, and recovered £60 of stolen money.

Mr Kennedy said: "It's my closest shop so I probably go there a couple of times a week. When I went down the road that day, this guy was stood outside, just looking in the door.

"He stood aside to let me in before him and I said 'thank you very much young man' to him and went inside to get my lottery ticket. The next thing I knew, the lady was shouting and screaming, so I walked straight over.

"I knew what he was doing straight away – he had his hands in the till.

"I know all the women that work there – by sight, I mean – because I'm in there so much, so I didn't like it."

Mr Kennedy insisted he would act the same way in any similar incident.

He said: "You've got to stand up for what you believe in. He was doing wrong and I didn't like it – I don't like to see women treated in that way. If it happened again I'd do the same tomorrow."

Even though Mr Kennedy sometimes requires two crutches to move around, he claims he did not fear for his safety during the robbery.

"I wasn't scared at all," he said. "I can look after myself. I just went over and lamped him with my walking stick.

"I must have got him pretty well; I hit him hard and he had his hands on the grounds."

Coleman escaped with £445, but was caught on CCTV. At Plymouth Crown Court last week, Judge Francis Gilbert QC described Mr Kennedy as brave spirited, before sentencing Coleman to four concurrent four-year jail terms, after he pleaded guilty to four charges of robbery.