A BOXING Day shopper braved freezing temperatures yesterday morning to pick up the bargain of a lifetime.

Derrick Noddings, 52, bought a leather suite, which should have cost almost £1,000, for only £1 at Clifton Suite and Leather Centre, in Darlington.

He arrived at the store at 4.45am on Boxing Day, armed with a folding chair, Balaclava, woolly hat and gloves.

And he sat and waited until the shop opened at 11am, when he was able to make his prize purchase of a dark blue leather settee and two chairs.

He said: "It's unusual for me because I'm not normally lucky but I just fell in lucky with the time.

"The shop had said the first person in the queue would get it and I timed it just right.

"There were a few others that came along with flasks and things but once they saw me they went back home. Another man told me he'd gone the night before but given up because of the temperature."

Mr Noddings, a retired council storeman, said the suite would fit in perfectly in the home he shares with his partner, Irene, in Geneva Crescent, Darlington.

Shop manager Barry Silliker said: "The recommended retail price was £2,000 and we would normally sell it for £999. The man who got it for a pound was very, very pleased. He was absolutely shaking. And it was worth it for us, as we got so many shoppers through the door."