A pensioner has been reunited with his medals after they were stolen by burglars in 1991.

Former Royal Engineer John Olley MBE last saw his medals 18 years ago when he went away for a few days.

When he returned to his home in Saltwood, near Hythe they had been taken in a burglary.

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.

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

Mr Olley said: "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'!"

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