A TORY boss was forced to take the law into his own hands after prankster crooks cut off his bike lock and replaced it with one bought from Poundland.

Darius Laws arrived back to High Street, in Colchester, where his bike was locked only to find a would-be thief had placed a new lock over it.

But the cautious Conservative acted quickly - with the help of a police officer - and cut the rogue lock off and quickly made his escape.

It comes just a week after the same bike was targeted by crooks while locked up outside Waitrose, in St Andrew’s Avenue.

Mr Laws said: “It happened between 9.30am and 4pm on Friday and I actually can’t believe someone would be as brazen as to do that in broad daylight.

“The new lock was from Poundland so I believe what can happen is the perpetrator will come back in the evening, hoping you’ve abandoned your bike for the night, and take it then but thankfully it didn’t come to that.”

He added: "I came out and I was just standing there for ten minutes trying to work out what I would do about it.

"Luckily it turned out OK with the help from a police officer."