A parish council chairman said he still has faith in the youth of the country, despite being targeted by yobs after going for a kebab.

Mark Brett, 50, from Gravesend, was lying in a road being treated by paramedics when a gang of youths, who he believed to be “Eastern European”, stole his wallet and phone out of his bag.

Chair of Shorne Parish Council, Mr Brett, was walking to Gravesham Community Hospital in Bath Street, Gravesend, when he lost his balance and fell face first into the road.

He went to the hospital after a horse fly bite on his leg, from three weeks earlier, had become too painful to bear.

Mr Brett was eating with a friend in Rainbow Pizza and Kebab in New Road before the incident, which is only across the road.

Paramedics had put a screen around Mr Brett when he was lying in the road and it was then that the thieves struck, grabbing items out of his bag, which was left on the other side of the screen.

Luckily a group of men standing outside the nearby Somerset Arms pub in Darnley Road, saw what was unfolding and chased the group, tracking them down and getting back Mr Brett’s wallet.

He said: “[Even after the event] I still have my faith in the British people.

“Three young lads who were stood around from the Somerset took a chance and caught up with them, one of the lads was smart enough to let the one of them go and just pick up my wallet instead.”

Mr Brett explained that he found it sad people would even do something like this.

He said: “While a man was passed out in the road being attended to by paramedics they thought it was ok to steal his wallet and his phone.“

Mr Brett sustained no serious injuries from the incident, but has been forced to wear a neck brace after an old back injury flared up.