I was only getting a lift in the getaway car'

10:11am Wednesday 21st March 2001

AN alleged robber snared by police after nine bank heists claimed he was not involved in any robberies and was arrested after innocently accepting a lift in the getaway car, an Old Bailey trial has heard.

John Farnan, 21, said he visited the Crofton Park area in May last year to see a bike advertised in Loot when the Barclays Bank in nearby Brockley Road was robbed by two men wearing motorcycle crash helmets. Farnan said he saw his friend Bal Lewis, 32, and a 16-year-old youth in a car and asked for a lift.

Detectives later rammed them in Trundley's Road, Lewisham, and found £2,500 from the raid in the car, the court was told.

Farnan, of Plough Way, Bermondsey, denied involvement in any of the attacks on branches of Lloyds TSB and Barclays across south London.

The gang allegedly robbed TSB in Tower Bridge Road on March 4 last year, Barclays in Tower Bridge Road last March 14 and 31, Barclays in Plough Way, Bermondsey, last March 28 and April 12, Barclays in Penge High Street on April 11, Lloyds TSB in Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, on April 28, Barclays in Lordship Lane on May 2 and Barclays in Brockley Road, Crofton Park, on May 11.

Farnan and Lewis, of Tabard Street, Southwark, and a 16-year-old and 17-year-old, deny conspiracy to rob banks and conspiracy to posses a firearm or imitation firearm. Farnan, Lewis and the 17-year-old deny robbery and possession of an air pistol on May 11 last year.

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