A FORMER solicitor and his wife were handcuffed and robbed in their idyllic Portuguese holiday home during a “terrifying” attack.

A masked gang stormed into the Algarve villa of pensioner Bob Pickles, who spent his career working in Blackburn, and wife Frieda, 72, as they watched TV late at night.

The gang left the couple handcuffed as they made off with their new car and thousands of Euros in cash.

Yesterday, Mr Pickles, 74, described the ordeal as “like something out of A Clockwork Orange”.

And he said the attack - which left the couple handcuffed for three hours - had traumatised his wife and made them scared to return to their plush Mediterranean holiday home.

Mr Pickles, of Copster Green in the Ribble Valley, and his wife had been relaxing in their villa when the masked robbers struck.

The couple have owned the home in glamorous Penina, Portimao, for 22 years.

He said: “It was about 10pm and my wife was in bed while I was in the lounge watching TV and about to go to bed.

“That was when the three men in masks barged in through the bedroom window and tried to smother my wife.

“Before we knew it, we had been cuffed around our ankles and our hands.”

The robbers - three men, one of whom is said to have spoken with a French accent - then escaped, taking around 700 Euros in cash and Mr Pickles’ brand new British-registered Mercedes with them.The couple were eventually freed from the handcuffs by their daughter’s partner who called round at the villa at around 1.30am, hours after the attack.

The pair are now back home in East Lancashire recovering from the horrific ordeal.

Yesterday, Mr Pickles compared the attack to a scene from A Clockwork Orange, the violent 1970s film about a criminal gang.

He said: “It felt just like something from that film. It was totally terrifying but luckily we survived it.

“But my wife is very stressed about the whole thing and I really don’t know if we will be going back to Portugal again.”

After the attack at Mr and Mrs Pickles’ home on September 22, Portugal’s tourism boss, Javed Shamim, described it as an “isolated” incident that should not put off tourists from visiting.

However, recent attacks have also prompted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to warn tourists about a spike in serious and sexual offences in the Algarve this year.

Mr Pickles, who retired in 1999, spent his career working in Blackburn.