A NO-NONSENSE shopkeeper has told how he used a golf club to scare a knife-wielding robber into doing a runner.

Narendra Patel came face-to-face with Damien Bendall on the morning of June 7 this year, when the latter attempted to rob Sherborne News, in Nythe, with a seven-inch blade.

However, Bendall, who was sentenced to three years behind bars for the crime on Friday, did not count on the resilience of the 61-year-old owner and soon turned tail when faced with a golf club.

There was no evidence linking the 25-year-old, of Cranmore Avenue, with the offence at the Sherborne Place newsagents, but he was sentenced after handing himself in.

Twelve days after the offence, Bendall’s guilty conscience got the better of him and he called Wiltshire Police to confess, landing himself a jail term at Swindon Crown Court.

Mr Patel, who has run the newsagents for the past 14 years with his wife, recalls the incident well and remembers Bendall lurking around the fridge for some time before deciding on a drink.

He remembers the offender speaking on his mobile phone before paying for the drink and turning to walk off before taking a second call.

“At that point I could see he was going to do something unusual or grab something, so I became a little bit concerned,” said Mr Patel.

“I reached for the golf club just in case, which I always have within arm’s reach.

“It was with a second phone call he pulled the knife out. I was ready and he just pulled back and ran.”

Mr Patel has been lucky in only suffering one other such attempt in the past at the shop, but is always prepared, with several bars, poles and clubs scattered around various parts of the business for his protection.

“I was okay, but in that moment I was just blank.

“It was a natural reflex to protect myself and my business,” he said.

Upon reporting Bendall’s attempt, Mr Patel said the police scrambled its helicopter and sniffer dogs in pursuit, but to no avail.

“I thought it would be difficult to find him unless anybody saw him running around outside,” he said.

Mr Patel, who moved to Swindon from Sidcup in 1992, where he also ran a newsagents, said the sentence was strong enough for Bendall and he hoped the convict would turn his life around on release.