INSPIRED by YouTube footage of a pensioner fending off robbers with her handbag a have-a-go-hero used his umbrella to stop a daylight robbery on a Rayners Lane jewellers last week.

Having watched the footage of the granny taking on jewellery thieves in Northampton just days before the attempted raid on Sangamam Jewellers, in Rayners Lane, the 30-year-old war veteran took on two sledge hammer wielding robbers.

Shocked onlookers, including frightened school children, watched on as the duo pulled up alongside the jewellery shop in a Lexus 4x4 at around 4pm on Friday.

Having already nearly run over an old lady the balaclava clad pair took their sledge hammers to the front windows of the store taking several swings at the windows.

Tim, who has asked for his full identity to be concealed, spotted the looters, and armed only with his sports brolly, took the pair on. He said: “When I saw them trying to smash through the windows I was in shock, I thought I was dreaming.

“I just kept thinking about that old lady, which I had watched on the internet a couple of days before, and I thought 'if she can do it then so can I'. Obviously they had sledge hammers and I just had an umbrella but they were more scared of me than I was off them, I could see it in their eyes.

“I managed to hit one of them on the head quite hard with the end of the umbrella, so hard that it actually bent it. The police thanked me for my efforts but it was just one of those things, I would have tried to get in to the car and stop them when they ran off but there was no way of knowing what other weapons they might have had in there.

“I think they might have reached in and got one or two pieces of jewellery but I hope I stopped them getting away with more.”

Sivar Ruban, owner of Ideal Digital Lab, next door to the jewellers, praised the former army man, who fought in Iraq. He said: “There were a couple of guys trying to stop the robbers, I think people just won't tolerate things like that happening in their neighbourhood. I'm not sure I could have done it and I think most people were in shock. There were school children walking home screaming, it was pretty scary.”

Residents and other traders say it is the third time in just over a year that the shop has been subjected to attempted raids – including an attempt revealed in the Observer in August 2009.