A hero carpenter who once saved a child from a fire, turned crime-fighter when he caught a gang raiding his bank account.

Jeff Marriott, 54, suffered a cut and sprained thumb as he wrestled with the thieves outside a bank in Worthing.

He was trying to withdraw money from a cash machine at Barclays in Broadwater Street West at 7.25am yesterday when he spotted a card-cloning device over the slot.

He removed the device with the intention of taking it to police but was grabbed by one of the gang.

The thief tried to prise the device from his hand by bending his thumb back.

Mr Marriott was punched several times in the back before he tossed the device to a second man.

He believed the man to be an innocent bystander but he turned out to be part of a three-man scamming team.

The men fled with the device towards Ardsheal Road.

Mr Marriott, who is married with grown up children, needed hospital treatment and was shaken by the ordeal but did not think about his own safety. He said: "I just acted on instinct."

In 2002, Mr Marriott won Good Neighbour of the Year in the The Argus Achievement Awards for risking his life to rescue three-year-old Stephanie Jenken from her burning home in Worthing.

Mr Marriott said yesterday he had been alerted to cash machine scams by a television programme.

He said: "They'd done a very good job with the device. It was the same colour and material as the cash machine."

The scammers are believed to be eastern European. The man who assaulted Mr Marriott was white, in his late 20s or early 30s, muscular with short black hair and stubble. The two accomplices were slim with short hair.

Police have warned people to check cash dispensers carefully for scamming machines and to report anything suspicious.

PC Matt Pring said: "People using cash machines need to be wary of any plastic add-ons to the machine and to be cautious of any problems with their card entering the system."