A pensioner has been reunited with his medals, 18 years after they were stolen.

Former Royal Engineer John Olley MBE last saw his medals in 1991 when he went away for a few days.

When he returned to his home in Saltwood, they had been taken in a burglary and he long ago gave up hope of finding them.

The 78-year-old was awarded the MBE in 1958, the General Service Medal for his tour of duty in Malaya in 1956-1958 and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal in 1977.

He told the Express: “They were stolen 18 years ago, almost to the day. My wife and I were away for a week or so and some time during our absence the house was burgled and amongst the things they took were the medals.”

Mr Olley’s stepson Simon Hathaway, a former Metropolitan Police Officer, discovered the medals while looking on eBay.

Simon contacted Kent Police who carried out enquiries to find the original crime report from 1991. The medals were being sold by a dealer from Norfolk for £795, but they were handed to police when the dealer realised their background.

Mr Olley said: “You don’t put an intrinsic value on them but they are worth far more.

“The MBE was for work I did in Surawak - which is now Malaysia - blasting our way up a river for 150-odd miles.

“I was in the army for 36 years and was an engineer apart from five years attached to the Army Air Corps.

“I had long since forgotten about the medals after that amount of time but he [Mr Hathaway] was browsing the Internet he came across this entry on eBay which had my citation for the MBE on it.

“The odd thing is that on the end of the entry it said: 'worth further investigation’!”