At last a politician who really fights crime – in person, without fear. Dominic Grieve, the new shadow home secretary, has personally taken on criminals, solved four burglaries and recovered a large amount of stolen goods, it emerged yesterday.

Grieve, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, is known as a cerebral, mild-mannered lawyer, but his secret life as a cross between Bergerac and The Sweeney can now be revealed. It began when he returned home with his wife Caroline one night to find that their home in Kensington, west London, had been burgled. Opening the door, he saw blood spattered on the floor and walls.

A villain had broken in by smashing a bathroom window and had cut himself badly while squeezing through the small opening. Leaving cameras, the television and other bulky items, the burglar had escaped with a precious hoard of family jewellery. It included a diamond engagement ring belonging to Grieve’s wife and a gold brooch encrusted with jewels.

The burglar had made a get-away down the front steps of the house, in his haste dropping a silver tankard in the road. A passerby had, it turned out, picked the tankard up and handed it back to the thief, realising only later that a crime was under way.

As soon as Grieve saw what had happened, he called the police, who searched the area but found no sign of where the burglar had gone. They promised to investigate – and that seemed to be that.

“The police sent a car round and searched the area but could find no trace of the burglar,” said Grieve yesterday. “I was so infuriated that I was determined not to let the thing drop.”

He spent a sleepless night and in the morning decided to try to find the thief himself. The only clues were the bloodstains – which included a thumbprint.

At the time, 1994, Grieve was a barrister specialising in health and safety and his only experience of crime was as a lay visitor to police stations. Nevertheless, in classic Sherlock Holmes style, he followed the trail of blood spots down the front steps and into the road.

“The trail of blood was clearly visible – although of course the police could not have seen it the previous night,” he said. “I followed it, drop by drop. I was determined to find the culprit and not let him get away with it.”

He followed the trail all the way up the street where it led to a house divided into flats. On the front steps was a blood spot and on the door a bloody thumbprint. Grieve knocked.

A man from one of the flats opened the door and, as Grieve explained what had happened, had no hesitation in fingering the culprit. Downstairs, the man explained, lived a known crook who was always causing trouble.

It was hearsay, circumstantial evidence, nothing more. Then Grieve noticed more blood spots leading through the building. With a lawyer’s methodical approach he began interviewing the neighbours and, as evidence mounted, he called the police.

“It took me a while to convince them I wasn’t off my head, but when they did realise what was happening they took immediate action,” he recalled.

When police gained entry to the downstairs flat they found it stacked with stolen goods.

“It was full of loot – the proceeds of four burglaries were in there,” said Grieve. “There was silver, clocks, jewellery. About half of our stuff was there. Most of the silver we got back.

“There were sentimental things that were upsetting to lose. But my wife’s diamond engagement ring we got back.”

Grieve had stumbled across a notorious “fence” for high value stolen goods who, during interrogation, admitted that he had sent the burglar to hospital after bandaging his lacerated hand.

The burglar was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to four years in prison. The fence escaped prosecution because it turned out that he was a valuable police informant.

Last week Grieve was reluctant to talk about the episode and was embarrassed at being portrayed as the Clark Kent of Westminster. “It’s not exactly heroics,” he said.

However, the Tory shadow minister has form; he admitted that he once witnessed a yob hit a stranger on the head, without provocation, when on the London Underground. While other passengers looked on, Grieve grabbed the assailant and threw him off the train as the doors opened at the next station.

In another instance four years ago, Grieve, dressed in black tie, pursued a vandal who had been trying to destroy a bus stop. He gave chase and ensured that the man was arrested.

Crimefighters

Grieve is not the first “have-a-go” politician:

— John Denham, universities secretary, made a citizen’s arrest in 2005 on a heroin addict who he caught riffling through his possessions at a swimming pool

— In 2002 Oliver Letwin, then shadow home secretary, confronted two thieves outside his house. He was in his dressing gown

— Jack Straw, justice secretary, says he has tackled criminals four times, once saving a woman from assault

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