A MAN who hired two trucks to transport a hijacked £171,000 computer load told a jury yesterday he thought the vehicles were to be used for house removals.

Andrew Currie admitted he hired the lorries for his fiancee's brother, Terry Cutler, whose credit card was at its limit.

He had helped Cutler in the past, lending him £10,000, and had hoped to join him and Philip Price in a business, training lorry drivers.

It is alleged that the three men were members of a gang which held up a lorry on the M5 sliproad at Worcester South after it left Evesham.com on June 21 last year.

The driver Alan Jones, aged 57, was kidnapped at gunpoint and released in Wiltshire from the boot of a car, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Currie claimed he went down to Evesham to buy a cheap computer for his children after Cutler said he knew someone with six for sale.

But he was shocked and angry when he discovered too late that he was involved in a criminal enterprise.

Currie, aged 36, of Bourneside Drive, Telford, Cutler, 33, of Ellis Peters Drive, Telford and Price, 47, of West Road, Wellington, deny conspiracy to rob and kidnap along with six other men.

The co-accused are: Aaron Johnson, aged 19, his brother Simon Johnson, 21, and their father Frederick Johnson, 43, all of Culmington, Stirchley, Telford; 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.

Cutler, Price and Devine have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal the lorry.

Giving evidence, Currie, a man with no previous convictions, described how on the day of the hijack, he hired the trucks in Telford "to move some stuff. I assumed it to be house removals".

He gave the rental company his own name and address.

Currie met Cutler and Price at McDonald's restaurant in Evesham, where he was told they planned to steal a computer load.

"I was disappointed that Terry would get involved in something like this," he said.

"He was always very generous and straight."

Currie said he became angry after he was asked to drive towards the M5 and check the road for police cars.

He hoped to talk Cutler out of the crime but never got the chance after they were joined by other members of the alleged gang.

Currie admitted he helped unload part of the consignment at a lock-up garage in Hinckley.

The trial continues.