THE getaway car used in the failed armed robbery at Wolverley Post Office had been stolen a few hours earlier from a drive in Kingswinford.

Wayne Davies, one of the men accused of plotting a series of raids, told police he had stolen the Ford Sierra 4x4 to order.

This explained why his fingerprints were inside the vehicle, he told detectives. But he could give no reason why his prints were also on a black binliner containing two shotgun cartridges.

The trial at Worcester Crown Court is in its fourth week.

Davies, 26, of Himley Road, Dudley, Neal Frost, 33, of George Street, Wordsley, Michelle Sykes, 31, of Sudderley Gardens, Milking Bank, Gornal, and Patrick Crane, 38, of no fixed address, plead not guilty to conspiracy to rob.

Frost and Davies also deny having a sawn-off shotgun when committing an offence.

The prosecution say the raids came to an end after the attempted robbery at Wolverley when postmaster Richard Watkins stabbed a masked raider who was armed with a sawn-off shotgun.

The body of Scott Griffiths, 28, was found in the Sierra near his home in Blaze Park, Wall Heath.

Lindsay Round, of Forge Lane, Wall Heath, told the jury how she saw a Ford Sierra 4x4 race into the cul-de-sac on June 20, the day of the Wolverley raid, and two men get out. One of them shouted: "Scott, wake up." The other ran off and returned a little later in a black BMW and both drove off. When she left her house, she could see a body on the back seat.

Frost told police he was dog sitting for Griffiths on June 20. His former girlfriend, Elaine Price, who gave him an alibi, later changed her evidence.

She claimed she had received a telephone threat from Frost in prison advising her to "duck and dive" if she wanted to remain his friend. She denied a suggestion by Mr Ian Alexander, defending, that she changed her story because another girl had visited Frost in prison.

Brett Anslow, a guest at Sykes's home, claimed she was in bed with lodger Martin Williams at the time of the Wolverley raid and was also at home the previous night when the Little Chef restaurant in Manor Way, Halesowen, was robbed.

The trial continues.