A BIKE-riding bag snatcher who left a woman in her 80s with a suspected broken hip has been warned to expect a jail term.

Anthony Higson, 33, pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery when he appeared before a judge at Swindon Crown Court.

Homeless Higson admitted taking the handbag and its contents from the pensioner in Devizes on Monday, October 5.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told the court that the CCTV of the incident on Snuff Street 'comprehensively ruled out his alibi'.

Rough sleeper Hayley Nutland was praised for her role in arresting Higson after the pensioner's bag was snatched.

Miss Nutland, 28, who camps in woods near Devizes Cemetery, grabbed a man in his boxer shorts as he tried to escape from a house in the town as firearms officers arrived at the scene of the robbery.

She told the Gazette: "I have a drink and drugs problem and have done things in the past that I regret but this was a despicable thing to happen to an elderly lady.

"I had seen a bloke on a bike earlier and knew where he lived. I just grabbed hold of him and held on. He bit my finger but I wasn't going to let go.

"He was swearing at me and telling me to get off but I pushed him against the wall and told him not to fight me. I managed to keep him there until a police woman arrived. I had seen the elderly woman lying in the street crying in pain and I wasn't going to let this man get away."

A handbag belonging to the attacked woman was later found in the Kennet & Avon Canal with some possessions still inside.