An Ely man went from suspect thief to hero within 24 hours for confiscating a samurai sword from teenagers in Ely that he claimed posed a threat.

And it seems Cambridgeshire Police agree with his actions.

A statement tonight said not only had he handed it into Ely Police Station, one of the teenagers he took it off will be the questioned about showing it off in public.

Police confirmed the sword “has been brought into the police station with no further action against the male who confiscated it from the teenagers.

“The teenager who owns the sword will be dealt with accordingly for being in possession of a bladed article in a public place.”

CCTV images of Trevor Bennett, were released by police at Ely after a complaint was made that he had taken from teenagers but had not, as he told them, handed it in to police.

Those images and that appeal have been withdrawn

On Thursday Mr Bennett spoke to the Ely Standard and said the sword was all wrapped up and he was still trying to call police on the 101 number.

On Friday he received an email from police and a short while later took it to Ely police station.

To show the sword is potentially dangerous he released a five-minute video across social media showing it cutting through paper and being pulled in and out of its sheath.

“This is not a replica,” he said. “A good half hour beforehand these lads had been seen chopping at the trees and hitting a coke can with it, swinging it about in public.”

Mr Bennett said after taking to police station that “the officer said he had seen my video, so there was nothing further to explained.

“He thanked me and apologised – police recognised it wasn’t a theft but a good dead.”

In the video he explains what happened.

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“On Tuesday 26th, I was looking out my window and saw a group of three lads ranging from probably 14-16 years old and they had a sword.

“This is not a replica. This is a deadly weapon. It is not a toy and it shouldn’t have been in the hands of young kids out and about the town.

“I confiscated the sword. I saw the boys taking it out the sheath twice, messing about.

"I subsequently found out that before that these lads were chopping at the trees and hitting a coke can with it, swinging it about in public.

“The person that told me they saw them doing this said he also saw at least two other adults saying to him ‘you shouldn’t be doing that, it’s illegal’.

" I decided I will do the right thing which is to take it off them.”

Mr Bennett adds: “I walked up and said ‘where’s that sword?’ I grabbed it and I said it’s confiscated and I walked away.

"They protested ‘you can’t do that, you can’t do that’ I said ‘I don’t care, I’m taking it’.

Mr Bennett said his plan was for the teenagers not to be involved with police but that now seemed inevitable.

“I’ve got children. I’ve got a 12-year-old son and the first thing that came to my mind was ‘if my son happens to walk down the street and comes across these lads with this sword and there’s a confrontation, there’s a very high likelihood someone’s going to get very hurt.

“I’ve just demonstrated the power of this weapon without any force. I don’t know how old these lads were, but they shouldn’t have had this.”

Mr Bennett said: “This is a cover video to cover my arse and I wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this before I hand it back to the police so they can no longer say this is a toy, or replica, or any other way they want to describe it.

“And that’s that.”

Mr Bennett added: “It was not a theft but a good deed.”

He said he had received an email from one of the teenagers with an apology.