A BUSINESSMAN accused over a plot to hijack a lorry has denied in court that he "bankrolled" the crime.

Andrew Currie insisted he was only doing alleged ringleader Terry Cutler a favour when he agreed to hire two trucks on his credit card. They were used to ferry the £171,000 hijacked computer load to lock-up garages, in June last year.

Currie said he never thought Cutler would go through with the plan and hoped to talk him out of it.

He had loaned Cutler - his bride-to-be's brother - £10,000 in the past and had offered to help him out again financally.

During cross-examination, prosecuter Nigel Godsmark QC suggested: "You were bankrolling this." Currie denied it but confessed: "In the end I reluctantly got involved. I made a mistake, I hold my hands up. This is going to stay with me for the rest of my life."

He admitted lying in a police interview and explained he did not want to "grass up" his future brother-in-law.

Currie claimed Cutler pleaded with him at the last minute to spy out the lorry's route from Evesham.Com to the M5 where its load was stolen on June 21 last year on the slip-road at Whittington, near Worcester.

Kidnapped

The lorry driver was kidnapped and driven to Wiltshire before being released, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Currie, aged 36, of Bourneside Drive, and Cutler, 33, of Ellis Peters Drive, both Telford, deny conspiracy to rob and kidnap.

Seven other men deny similar charges. They are: Aaron Johnson, aged 19, his brother Simon Johnson, 21, and their father Frederick Johnson, 43, all of Culmington, Stirchley, Telford; Philip Price, 47, of West Road, Wellington; Terence Devine, 38, of Coronation Road, Walsall Wood, Walsall; Philip Dolphin, 40, of Bishopdale, Brookside, Telford, and Stephen Booth, 39, of Hurleybrook Way, Leegomery, Telford.

Cutler and Price deny possession of a firearm during a robbery.

Cutler and Simon Johnson also plead not guilty to the false imprisonent of an unnamed man on December 12, 2001, and possession of a firearm with intent to commit false imprisonment.

The jury have been told that Cutler, Price and Devine have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal the lorry.

The trial continues.