THE landlady of an award-winning guest house has told how she and four other women fought with a thief who threatened them with a knife.

Heather Armstrong, three members of her staff from Clow Beck House, Croft, near Darlington, and a woman motorist held the conman down until police arrived.

Mrs Armstrong told yesterday how she "saw red" when the man, posing as a guest, vanished with a compact disc player and a lamp.

The man, who was described as "rather scruffy", had booked in for one night.

Mrs Armstrong showed him to his room and offered him a pot of tea while he freshened up.

When the man left his room, Mrs Armstrong and another member of staff went to tidy it - and discovered that a lamp and a CD player were missing.

"I just saw red," she said.

The man had fled from the guesthouse and was heading towards Croft, so Mrs Armstrong and three of her staff - Lyndsey Dickens, Sharon Mansfield, and Marie Powner - telephoned the police before jumping into a car to give chase.

"I saw him on Croft bridge with two boxes so I stopped the car and confronted him. I could see the lampshade through the side of the box and asked him to return my property," said Mrs Armstrong.

The thief tried to run away, but he was chased and stopped by Mrs Armstrong and her staff.

Another woman, Jill Russell, a friend of Mrs Armstrong's, stopped her car to help when she saw what was happening.

The women, who say they have been branded locally as Heather's Angels, held him down until the police arrived.

"He was fighting to get away and said he had a knife and would use it, but we gave as good as we got," said Mrs Mansfield.