A FORMER professional kickboxer has told how he stabbed a university student who tried to rob his shop.
Heroin addict Tom Henry Waller, 26, tried to steal cash from a convenience store after bursting into the shop armed with the golf club and knife strapped on to the end.
He threatened owner Minesh Patel, demanding he put the cash in a black bag.
But Mr Patel turned on the student, seizing the weapon and stabbing Waller in the arm before the addict fled from Bargain Booze in Worthing Street, west Hull.
Mr Patel, 36, said: "I do have a fighting background, so it was a natural reaction.
"He shoved the golf club with the knife at me. I didn't know there was a knife on the end.
"I snatched it off him with two hands.
"I just tried to hit him with it."
Mr Patel's martial arts background meant he was able to deal with the robber.
But he feared things could have been different had his young son been in the shop with him.
The shopkeeper said: "My house is just upstairs and if it's a weekend, I've got my kids down.
"We've a woman who works part-time and I've said to her and my missus, 'If there's any trouble, just let them have it'.
"If I'd had a few more seconds to think about it, I would have probably just let him have it."
Waller, a second-year student at the University of Hull, also threatened staff and customers at Betfred in Beverley Road with a carving knife in another robbery.
He also admitted stealing a 15-year-old girl's handbag as she walked along Worthing Street with her 13-year-old friend.
The robber was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted robbery and robbery at Hull Crown Court.
Mr Patel said he felt the sentence was too lenient.
He said: "I would have been happy if it was just for this place but, considering he's robbed another place and stole from that teenager, I think this is where the system lets us down.
"I'm all right because I can handle it, but that young girl whose purse he took, she was shocked.
"People are going to be worried about coming out."
