AN Andover jeweller has told how he tried to fight off a hammerwielding gang during a dramatic smash-and-grab robbery on his Andover shop.

David Mellor, owner of David Mellor and Sons Jewellers in Waterloo Court, was injured in the drama as he bravely threw himself at Luke Peverall and Tom White.

The pair had forced their way into his shop after racing up on a motorcycle.

The pair managed to grab watches worth thousands of pounds despite Mr Mellor’s best efforts to stop the robbery, in which he was flung to the concrete pavement.

They were later traced by police to an address in Berkshire and now Peverall and White face five years behind bars after admitting to conspiring to rob the jewellers.

But Mr Mellor told the Andover Advertiser that he has been left “angry and disappointed” by the lenient sentence which was handed out by the judge.

Dramatic CCTV footage shows the two robbers drive up to the jewellers on a motorcycle and rush into the store.

It shows what is believed to be White, the pillion passenger, wielding a claw hammer and smashing a glass display holding expensive watches ranging between £2,000 to more than £10,000 each in value.

They are thrown into a rucksack while the motorcyclist waits by the doorway.

Mr Mellor, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, appears and grapples with the helmetwearing intruder, despite having limited mobility following both hip and knee replacements.

A tussle ensues and Mr Mellor, 62, is thrown to the pavement outside the shop as both the intruder and himself fall through the shop door.

White and Peverall flee the scene as Mr Mellor manages to grab the rucksack.

After sentencing, Mr Mellor told the Advertiser about how the robbery has affected him and the staff in his shop.

He said: “Every time a motorbike or a car goes up Waterloo Court my heart goes into my mouth thinking that it is going to happen again.

“My staff are twitchy, they are all as nervous as hell, like a cat on a hot tin roof.

“Every time something goes up the street they are looking at it to see what it is.”

The two men were arrested at an address in Reading after a phone found in the bag left at the scene linked the defendants to the robbery.

Peverall, 24, of no fixed address, and White, 26, of Swallow Fields, Iver, spoke only to confirm their names as they appeared at Winchester Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to conspiring to rob the jewellers.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, told the court that the claw hammer and the bag were left behind after the struggle as White joined Peverall on the motorbike and they made their getaway.

She added: “There were in fact 18 watches that were targeted, there were only three that were taken and they were a used Rolex, a Cartier 18- carat white gold watch and a Cartier Roadster worth £13,600.”

Despite the defendants making guilty pleas and sending a letter of apology to Mr Mellor and his staff, the court heard that the watches have never been recovered.

During the struggle, Mr Mellor suffered an injury to his shin and bruising to his back where he pushed the robber through the door.

A female store assistant and a female customer with her two-yearold grandson were in the shop at the time and remain traumatised by the experience.

David Mellor & Sons Jewellers also have stores in Eastleigh and Totton.

Andover Advertiser:

Miss Maylin went on to tell the court that two days before the incident on Monday, 8 September, CCTV footage from both the Eastleigh and Andover stores shows the defendants entering the shops, asking questions and appearing to assess which shop would be the better target.

Passing sentence, the Recorder of Winchester, Judge Keith Cutler, said: “I want you to know that shops will have the protection of the courts.

“Mr Mellor came to see what was going on then there was a struggle in which he was injured and this is the risk with carrying out the sort of criminal activity that you were intending on.

“There was a very high risk that someone would be hurt and indeed someone was and that was Mr Mellor.”

Mr Mellor has confirmed that they now have full-time security in all three stores.