A man helped a mugger who allegedly stole from his 12-year-old nephew find the “error of their ways” after tracking him down.

Winston Davis, a heating engineer who performs in many charitable acts aiding youths locally, has gone viral on Instagram after releasing a video of him lecturing a teenage boy who is believed to have stolen a bag from his nephew.

The alleged knifepoint mugging took place in London Colney in July, and Mr Davis eventually managed to track the boy down after “putting the pieces together”.

In the video, that has over 61.2k views on Instagram, Mr Davis is heard saying: “The fact that you brought the bag back, that says a lot about you.

“You could have easily turned your phone off, you could have easily allowed it and bury your head in the sand. In life sometimes we do things that we regret and then we want to try make something change after that and what you’re doing, bringing this back, is a big moment.”

Explaining why he initially tracked down the boy, he said: "You can't go around mugging 12-year-olds, you can't go mugging anyone, let alone a defenceless child.

“So I went to the place where it happened and started to look and see where there was CCTV. I followed the route where the lady chased the boys.”

Borehamwood Times: Winston DavisWinston Davis (Image: Winston Davis)

When he eventually found the boy, he said he realised he had found a “frightened boy” and used the encounter as an opportunity to find out why he did it.

Mr Davis, from Watford, said: “That’s when he told me he’s been in and out of detention centres and had no education and has literally been living in supported living.

“I said to him look, I’ll help you if you return the bag. We made the agreement that he would go get the bag and come back the next - and fair play to him that’s exactly what he did.”

The video shows Mr Davis lecturing him there and showing “there are other options”.

He continued: “I think we dealt with it in the appropriate way and hopefully more youngsters can be dealt with by showing him the errors of their ways.”