The hero shopkeeper backing our crusade

THE shopkeeper who picked up a wine bottle and chased a knife-wielding hoodie from his store has backed our Ban the Hood for Good campaign.

Jasvinder Bains, 40, was caught on his own store’s CCTV as an attacker waved a seven-inch blade in his face and demanded cash.

The father of four turned the tables on the hoodie, grabbing a £4.99 bottle of Blossom Hill red wine by the neck and chasing him out.

Mr Bains said: “I was lucky. I didn’t get hurt and the thug fled empty- handed but it would have been a ­different story if my wife had been working.

“In my view the solution is simple – if hoods are not made, people can’t wear them.

“The Government should step in and stop the manufacturers making them – with immediate effect. Plus people in hoodies should be banned from all private premises and public transport.

“I know it sounds a bit heavy handed but it’s necessary. I reckon the thug who robbed me was an opportunist. The hoodie is a ready-made balaclava – all he had to do was walk through the door. It makes it too easy. I could pass the man in the street and wouldn’t recognise him. All I saw when he attacked me was his nose.

“My wife and daughter work at the store. They now get really scared when anyone wearing a hoodie walks in. They feel vulnerable.”

Mr Bains called the police but no arrests have been made since the attack last Sunday.

He has owned Bains Store in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, since he came to Britain from India 17 years ago but this the first time someone has tried to rob him.

Mr Bains lives above his store with his wife Kamaljit, 40, and their three daughters and one son – aged six, 11, 14 and 17 and works 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mr Bains’s views on the dangers of the hoodie were endorsed last night by British Olympic medalist John Regis. Last year his teenage nephew, Adam, was stabbed to death in a street in Plaistow, east London, by two hooded thugs.

John, who now spends some of his time persuading London teenagers to abandon gang lifestyles in favour of sports, said: “The Sunday Express campaign is a good idea – the hoodie has been hijacked by teenagers who use it to cover their faces and carry out crime.

“They’ve taken it over, and now we have to take it off them.”

John, 41, shot to fame in the late Eighties when he won a clutch of medals – including silver at the Seoul Olympics. He was the first Briton to run the 200m in less than 20 seconds.

But his future could have been very different had he not escaped the clutches of gang power as a young teenager in south-east London.

“I was nearly another statistic,” he said. “I had some very dodgy friends who did very bad things.

“I know now that at least two of them are dead and another is in jail. I could have been part of that.

“I’ve worn hoodies in the past – I was an athlete. But it’s all changed now. If it’s raining it’s fair enough to put your hood over your head.

“But it should definitely be banned from public places, where people could feel intimidated. There should be a law telling people to remove their hoodies in these places.

“It’s no different from motor­cyclists having to take their crash helmets off before going into a bank.”