A BUNGLING robber who was tackled to the ground by three have-a-go heroes after a terrifying armed raid on a Gornal Wood Spar shop has been jailed for five years.

Stephen Ball was armed with a baseball bat while his accomplice carried a machete as they burst into the Abbey Road supermarket and told a the cashier: "If you don't do as you are told you will get hurt."

Howard Searle, prosecuting, said the woman, who was herded into a backroom with a colleague was "very scared".

Ball, aged 31, jumped behind the counter and started to empty cigarettes and tobacco into a bag.

His partner fled with the cash, but dropped it because it was too heavy. He escaped in a waiting Rover and is yet to be traced.

Meanwhile, Ball, realised he had been left on his own and tried to open the door, but was foiled when he tried to push instead of pulling it.

Members of the public tried to keep the door shut from the other side, but Ball smashed it with his baseball bat, showering one man with glass and forcing others to back off.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told that Ball ran into the road where he tried to hijack a passing car being driven by a woman.

Ball smashed one of the car's windows - leaving the driver with cuts to her head - and tried to grab the keys in his desperate bid to escape but she was able to put her foot on the accelerator and drive off.

Another member of the public arrived and punched Ball in the face and then sat on him until police arrived and arrested him, at around 10pm on October 23.

"It was the sterling efforts of local people who used courage to stop you getting away," Judge James Burbidge QC told Ball as he gave them each a £100 reward for their commendable actions.

Ball who had 74 previous convictions on his "appalling" criminal record, admitted robbery, possessing an offensive weapon, affray, assault and damage.

Philip Brunt, defending, said that at the time Ball of Turner Street, Tipton, was in the "grip of his drug addiction" and he was after money to feed his habit.

He said it was a "poorly planned" raid, adding: "He knows it was a dreadful thing to have done."

The court was told that at the time of the raid Ball, a father-of-four, was on licence from prison having been jailed for an earlier robbery.

Speaking after the sentencing, DC Cal Sanders, from force CID, said: "I wish to thank the brave members of the public who helped detain a violent offender until police arrived.

“This incident shook staff and members of the public alike and I hope that the sentence will go some way to easing their nerves."