Customers foil armed bank robbery

Heroic bank customers punched and held down a dangerous robber as they foiled a dramatic daylight raid. Pensioners ordered stunned career criminal John Hickinbottom “Get out, we don’t want this” before other customers landed punches and sat on him during a failed bid to hold up Lloyds TSB in Oldbury.

Masked Hickinbottom, aged 43, and a hooded accomplice who appeared to be armed, had stormed into the bank using a broom to prop the door open and ensure a quick getaway. In dramatic footage captured on the bank’s CCTV cameras, Hickinbottom orders staff to “Give me all the money” and warns customers to stand back. Footage of the second robber, who is still at large, appears to show him pointing at something in his pocket.

Customer Mark Piddington saw what was happening and lashed out, striking the robber in the head, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. Brave Mr Piddington grabbed hold of Hickinbottom’s hood, landed several firm punches and pulled him to the floor of the Hagley Road West branch. Mr Julian Elcock, prosecuting, told the court: “Several other men came at this point – some of the customers and some builders working at the back of the bank. “Together they held the defendant on the ground until the police arrived.”

Hickinbottom, who had only been out of prison for 14 days after being released early from a six-year jail sentence for another bank robbery, then asked the have-a-go heroes to pull down his balaclava as he was struggling to breathe.He is now beginning an indefinite prison sentence lasting at least three years. Mr Piddington told police afterwards: “I did what I could and what I thought was right at the time.”

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