A MUGGER who was caught by two have-a-go-heroes after he robbed an elderly man in a York street was today starting a two-and-a-half year jail term.

As heroin addict James Henry Mullen was sentenced at York Crown Court yesterday, it was revealed how his drug habit was reignited after a bus ploughed into his mother's house.

Mullen, 44, of Arncliffe House, Acomb, attacked 78-year-old partially blind and deaf William Gover as he was walking in Piccadilly on December 19.

Mr Gover was waiting to cross the road when Mullen approached him. He pretended to help Mr Gover cross the road, but grabbed him, put his hands in his pocket and stole some cigarettes and £255 he had withdrawn from the bank.

Two passers-by who saw the robbery - John Mcloughlin and Carl Schofield - chased Mullen along Fishergate before bundling him to the floor in Festival Flats and holding him until police arrived.

Carl, 30, a conservation worker, was walking from his house in Lead Mill Lane when he saw Mullen manhandling the frail pensioner.

He said: "I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and now it is one less criminal on the street. I would have done it with anyone. If something is not right, it's not right. We do not want this kind of thing in York and if we see it people should intervene."

His partner, Melissa Hughes, 20, stayed with the pensioner to comfort him after his ordeal.

John, 32, a solicitor, of Blossom Street, York, said: "I just saw it and thought: 'This is not right.' It was Christmas week and I thought this guy is not getting mugged in broad daylight. I just thought: 'This is wrong on so many levels, and that guy was going to get caught'."

Yesterday Mullen, who had previous convictions for violence, one involving hitting a pensioner in the face with a beer can, pleaded guilty to robbery

Nicholas Barker, mitigating, said Mullen had been living a stable life with his mother at her Lawrence Street home.

But after a First bus smashed into the house in September, forcing him to move out, he again descended into a world of drugs and alcohol abuse.

Sentencing Mullen, the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told him: "You are a heroin addict and you committed this offence because, as you put it, you were rattling.

"What you did was choose a man who you knew would be a pushover at 78 years of age, registered blind walking with the aid of a stick. You knew he would not put up any resistance and you chose him for that reason."

Have-a-go heroes praised

JOHN MCLOUGHLIN and Carl Schofield, near the tower in Piccadilly, York, where they came to the aid of pensioner William Gover, as he was being robbed.

Yesterday, Detective Constable Clive Wakefield, of York CID, praised their actions, saying: "It was a particularly nasty offence because of the vulnerability of the old person involved.

"It is certainly something that we really respect, people who have seen an offence like that take place and have thought: 'This is just despicable,' and decide to step in.

"It is very brave, superb actually, and we would love to thank them for their actions."

Updated: 10:20 Wednesday, January 04, 2006