75-year-old explains how he foiled Newcomb bank robbery on 3AW Breakfast

FIRST ON 3AW: A 75-year-old who foiled an armed robbery at Geelong by putting one of the offenders in a headlock has described what it was like to stare down a man armed with a sawn-off shotgun.

Bernard Williams was in the queue at a Newcomb bank on Wednesday afternoon when a woman armed with a screwdriver and a man armed with a gun entered the bank and demanded cash from a teller.

‘They were screaming out for money and so forth,’ he explained on 3AW Breakfast.

‘I took a quick look and thought this must be a joke, you know?

‘But then I thought, you don’t play jokes like that at a bank…

‘Anyway, I took another quick look at the one standing next to me and thought ‘you’re not that big in stature – I reckon I can take you down’ and I grabbed her around the neck and twisted her around and put her between me and the bloke with the gun.

‘I thought if he’s going to shoot me, he’s going to have to shoot her first.’

Click PLAY below to hear Bernard Williams with Ross and John on 3AW

He said the man armed with the gun then pointed it at him and the woman.

‘She was screaming out ‘shoot him, shoot him’ –  she said that two or three times,’ Mr Williams said.

But the man didn’t and fled.

Another man in the bank then came to Mr Williams’ aid to help hold the woman down while they waited for police

‘I was running out of puff by then,’ he said.

A 29-year-old woman will face court today over the incident.

Mr Williams also quashed reports he’d been a policeman or soldier in the past.

‘The only thing I’ve had from police is a fine,’ the former publican said with a laugh.