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A good Samaritan who helped to catch a Post Office robber went on to steal almost £800 of the loot.
Cameron McLeod acted like a hero when he and another person grabbed Shaun Dennis, who was armed with a knife and had robbed Owton Manor West Post Office.
They held onto Dennis until the police arrived.
But McLeod, 29, was later arrested himself after it emerged he had stuffed £780 of the stolen cash into his own pockets after it fell on the floor during the confusion.
The botched robbery by Dennis, 34, who was later jailed for six years, happened at about 2.30pm on August 7 at the combined Post Office and Nisa store, in Owton Manor Lane.
Dennis threatened a shop worker at the counter with a kitchen knife and filled a bag with money.
Some of the money dropped by the robber the defendant gathered up and kept for himself
Prosecutor Paula Sanderson
But quick-thinking staff rolled the shutters down trapping the robber inside. He proceeded to smash through a glass pane in the door and crawl outside where he was stopped in his tracks by members of the public including McLeod.
Prosecutor Paula Sanderson told Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court: “Thanks to the defendant’s behaviour the person involved in this very serious offence was detained, but after the heat died down in relation to the robbery the other person assisting in the detention of the robber then approached police and said the person took some of the money as well.