A mum-of-four chased two suspected meat thieves for a mile before confronting one of them and forcing him to give the haul back.

Kay Hussey, who is not much taller than 5ft, had popped into the Spar store in Wrotham Road, Meopham, to visit her 18-year-old son Oliver during his shift on Saturday evening when she was told thieves had struck just minutes before.

Two men had stuffed almost £100 worth of meat, including chicken fillets and sausages, into a bag then ran out of the store and along Green Lane and Camer Road before dashing into fields to evade a chasing member of staff.

Mrs Hussey, 52, an interior designer who lives in nearby Culverstone, said: “I thought ‘I’m not having that’. I hate that sort of thing.

“A staff member gave me a description of them and I drove towards Cobham, in the direction they had gone. All of a sudden I spotted them, ducked down near the Railway Inn, near Sole Street station.”

Mrs Hussey said she asked people sitting outside the pub to help her but they were reluctant to get involved so she approached the young men herself.

She said: “I shouted at them ‘come out of that field’. I approached the first lad and told him to put the bag down. He told me he was homeless, but I know he wasn’t, and then he managed to get past me.

"I wasn't scared. I've got four sons, they're all strapping lads, about 6ft 4in and rugby players, so I'm used to dealing with big lads" - Kay Hussey

“I then approached the bigger fellow. He must have been in his mid-twenties and over 6ft – I’m 5ft and a fag paper.

“He had two bags over his shoulder. He told me one had his Xbox in but I went to him ‘give me that bag’.

“A few people from the pub had come across the road with me at that point and he dropped the bag and ran off towards the railway track.

“There was a second bag inside that one and it was absolutely full of meat. There was about £80 worth in there, all expensive meat, all organic, some chicken breasts and all free range. It wasn’t cheap.

“I took the bag back to Spar and said ‘here’s your meat back’. The assistant manager was almost crying and my son’s face was a picture.

“Then I just went and got fish and chips and carried on like normal but apparently everyone in Meopham was talking about it and someone I saw later that evening said ‘oh, you’re the hero’. I just said it is what it is.

“I wasn’t scared. I’ve got four sons, they’re all strapping lads, about 6ft 4in and rugby players, so I’m used to dealing with big lads.

“My boys just thought ‘oh God’ and my husband Steve was rolling his eyes. I’m sure they’d rather I didn’t do things like this but they don’t say that to me.”

It is not the first time Mrs Hussey has confronted suspected criminals in the area. A few months ago she stopped a vehicle that was driving erratically in Wrotham Road and took the keys away from a driver she says was so drunk he had wet himself, then called the police.

She said: “I told him he was disgusting. I was just thinking my son was due to be driving home that way at any minute, what if he’d hit him?’”

Meg Henderson, assistant manager at Meopham Spar, was the one who initially chased the pair.

Thanking Mrs Hussey, she said: “I think Kay is a hero, an absolute star, and very brave. We get the odd bit stolen here and there but we’ve never had a theft on that sort of scale before.”