BUILDER Chris Spearing sparked a police chase after hauling a suspected thief from the back of his works van.

Mr Spearing, 34, was working on a house in Evelyn Street, Old Town, Swindon, when he heard the alarm go off in his van.

In the ensuing struggle the would-be thief managed to break free and ran down an alley leading to Blackman Gardens.

A police helicopter from Devizes and a dog handling unit were scrambled to the scene shortly after 10am yesterday to attempt to track the man down.

Mr Spearing, a father-of-five, who runs JCD Architectural Services, said: "I rushed out here and discovered a bloke sitting in my van unloading all my tools into his van.

"I dragged him out. I was not really worried about myself, I have practiced martial arts for 15 years so I had to make sure that I restrained myself. He offered to help me put them back in the van for me. But I was not going to let him get away with that. I am a one-man band and those tools put food on the table for my kids. I have spent years getting them all together and they cost me about £1,000. I am not going to let someone come up and steal them. It was lucky that I had an alarm fitted, I only put it in last week."

One of the first officers on the scene was PC Nicholas Cooke, who said: "It seems that the offender was driving a stolen Vauxhall Astra van which he parked in Evelyn Street.

"In broad daylight he allegedly attempted to steal power tools, after breaking a rear window of the van. The owner of the Ford Transit van caught him in the act but was unable to restrain him."

He said the man, who is still at large, was aged about 25, had blond hair, crooked teeth and spoke with an Irish accent and was about 5ft 10ins tall. Anyone with information about the attempted theft should contact Swindon Police on Swindon 528111.