Auction room director Sue Owen was shoved into a door jamb when she tackled a robber stealing money from her office.

Mrs Owen, 56, who runs the Jubilee Auction Room in Pewsey with partner David Harrison, left its offices unoccupied for a few seconds on Friday and returned to find a man stealing £1,200, part of the takings from a sale two days earlier, and her own purse containing about £50 and gift vouchers she had received as birthday presents.

She said: “We close at about two o’clock on Fridays and I was in the office doing some paper work when I had to pop across the yard to the auction room because somebody had turned up and wanted to pay some money.

“I went over to the auction room (about 30 yards away) and when I went back into the office there was this chap in there rummaging through my desk.

“To start with I didn’t realise what he was doing so I actually apologised to him and said ‘I am sorry, I didn’t know you were here’.

“Then I realised he had the takings which I had left on the side and he had been through my handbag and was holding my purse.

“I tried to stop him as he ran from the office and he pushed me back hard into the door jamb,” said Mrs Owen.

This left her with a bruise on her right arm and a sore shoulder, however, Mrs Owen said her pride was hurt more than anything because she realised she should have secured the office before leaving it.

She recalled: “There were about ten people, most of them men, outside in the yard who were customers and others making a delivery but he ran past them, jumped into a car and drove off at speed in the Marlborough direction.”

Mrs Owen took the car registration number but police told her it had been bought for cash in Milton Keynes two days previously and the name of the purchaser was not known.

However Mrs Owen said: “The man had been here at the auction on Wednesday and he had hade a commission bid and left his name which I have given to the police.”

She said she was spooked by the fact that man, who fled with the money, never said a word to her. “He had this silly smile on his face because I had apologised to him I suppose.”

Police confirmed they were trying to locate the man Mrs Owen had named.