A GETAWAY driver who fled with £16,000 from a building society was caught when a passer-by followed him in his own car.

Carl Morling was waiting in an Audi in a car park behind the Nationwide in Christchurch when his accomplice snuck inside during a delivery of cash by security guards and brandished a claw hammer to steal the cash.

But Morling is today behind bars at the start of a five year sentence after hero Jack Player saw the men fleeing and followed them in his car.

Angela England, prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, said the man who made it inside the high street building society wearing a balaclava has not been traced.

But police caught up with Morling, 44, close to the car after the January 14 robbery.

Miss England said the G4S guard was taking the third cash box into the Nationwide late in the evening when he was confronted by a man wielding what he had thought was a wrench.

She said: “A member of the public saw what was taking place and saw the Audi scream out of Christchurch towards Bournemouth.

“The member of the public followed them to an area of Bournemouth where their vehicle was abandoned because the nature of the driving had probably burnt the clutch out.”

The two men tried to hide the cash box next to bins but when police turned up they found it as well as Morling, who “appeared to have been running” but denied any knowledge.

Robert Grey, in mitigation, said Morling, of Cecil Road, Bournemouth, was using the robbery to pay off debts and said he had been addicted to drugs.

Judge Peter Johnson praised Mr Player for using “courage” and “initiative” to go “above and beyond the call of public duty” and ordered him to be given a £250 reward from public money.

And in sentencing he said Morling had “moved up a league in his offending” to add to his “unenviable record” and should have pleaded guilty earlier.

He said: “You are 44 so it’s time to get on and do something else isn’t it?”