AN 81-YEAR-OLD man described how he beat off a masked robber with a lettuce, a bottle of bleach and some washing up liquid.

George Smith described his have-a-go actions as "idiotic" but said everything happened so quickly he did not have time to think or be frightened.

The former soldier in the Royal Corps of Signals was in the shop in Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells, shortly before 1pm on Friday when the robber wearing a hood and a face mask came in.

The man ran off empty handed and police believe it is the same raider who held up a Hawkhurst fish farm and escaped on a bicycle with £1,000 in cash and also raided a convenience store at Sidley in East Sussex.

The man was described as in his 20s, about 5ft 9ins tall of slim build. He was wearing a black hood.

* Full story in the Kent Messenger (Friday, May 4).