Ipswich: Man denies acting as a getaway driver for robbery

POLICE officers who arrested a man on suspicion of being a getaway driver following the robbery of a security guard, found a jacket in the boot of his car containing money bags stolen during the raid, a court has heard.

The money bags contained £150 worth of coins snatched from G4S security guard Heinz Tieck, who was attacked by two robbers as he was unloading bags of cash, totalling £1,750, outside the Lloyds TSB bank in Nacton Road on March 2 last year.

Police arrested Kevin Clarke, 30, after a member of the public made a note of the registration number of the car the two robbers were seen getting into and traced the vehicle to Clarke.

After his arrest Clarke claimed he had been asked by three men he had met the day before to give them a lift to Nacton Road for a hair appointment.

Clarke said he had stayed in his car with one of the men while the other two got out and he had no idea they were going to rob the security guard.

He denied acting as the getaway driver for the robbers.

He told officers he had been given £5 petrol money by the men to take them to Nacton Road but denied receiving any other payment.

Clarke said the jacket containing the cash belonged to one of the men he had given a lift to.

Clarke, of Dillwyn Street, Ipswich, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery.

The trial continues today.