EMPLOYEES in a Salisbury stamp shop played an important part in the arrest of an armed robber when he tried to sell them stolen collectables.

Craig Townend, from Rotherham, was found guilty of armed robbery, possessing a firearm with intent to commit robbery and three charges of false imprisonment at Exeter Crown Court earlier this month.

In July last year, he and an accomplice, who has not been found, burst into the Torquay home of stamp dealer Steven Bennett, bound and handcuffed him and his two sons and stole a stamp collection worth £400,000.

Stamp expert, Brian Cartwright, was working in Dauwalders in Fisherton Street a year ago when Townend entered the shop and tried to sell some of Mr Bennett’s stamps.

Mr Cartwright said: “He was very confident but he didn’t know stamps as well as he should have.”

The more he spoke to Townend, the more suspicious Mr Cartwright became.

He kept name dropping, particularly mentioning the director of Stanley Gibbons, the world premier stamp shop in The Strand. But when Mr Cartwright said he used to work there and knew the director fairly well, Townend quickly changed the subject.

“He was extremely smartly dressed, which doesn’t go hand-in-hand with stamp collectors - they’re normally casual. He started talking about lower quality stamps and packets of stamps.

“The stamps he had were top of the range, 20 stamps, all worth in the region of £1,000 upwards, but he was talking about stamps we sell by weight. If you’re dealing with one you don’t deal with the other, like if you’re a Rolls Royce dealer you don’t sell second-hand Minis.”

Mr Cartwright had the authority to buy the stamps but was suspicious of Townend so asked him to come back when his boss, who was away on business that day, would be there.

Paul Dauwalder, the owner of the shop, phoned Townend to arrange another meeting the following Monday but spoke to Mr Cartwright about his suspicions.

Townend did not turn up for the meeting and the staff turned over the leaflet Townend had left and the CCTV footage from the shop to Devon & Cornwall Police.

After he went to the shop, before the re-arranged meeting with Mr Dauwalder, he went to another dealer in London and tried to make the same deal.

The police arrested him after four stamps from the Bennett collection appeared on the auction website eBay.

Sentencing was adjourned to a later date, as Townend’s defence team was not able to attend court on the day of the verdict.