Lorry drivers 'lived in fear' - court told

There was an "atmosphere of fear" among lorry drivers in the West Midlands prior to an alleged violent robbery that ended in a thief being stabbed to death by a trucker, a court heard.

Vasilius Nikolakopoulos, who left Dean Skidmore with a fatal wound in his groin, said he no longer worked in the UK due to concerns he would be attacked again. He said he had been beaten up before.

The father-of-three from Greece told Warwick Crown Court yesterday he had been beaten up and lost six teeth in a previous diesel theft and his colleague had also been assaulted a few weeks before the fatal incident outside International Forwarding Ltd in Station Road, Coleshill, on February 26 2009.

Mr Nikolakopoulos is said to have been lured from his cab at 6.15am by a thief posing as a security guard and then attacked in a side street by three masked men armed with pickaxe handles who demanded he hand over the keys to his lorry. Mr Nikolakopoulos told the jury he stabbed Mr Skidmore, who was 36 and from Brierley Hill, in self-defence with a knife he used to prepare meals in his cab.

In cross-examination yesterday, Mr Nikolakopoulos, aged 42, said: "There was an atmosphere of fear in which we were as lorry drivers. I am sure you understand that we are people who are trying to earn a crust by doing the job we know. We are not criminals or people who go around equipped with weapons in order to do ill.

Spencer Howell, aged 36, of Bassett Road, Wednesbury, and Danny White, aged 19, of Biddings Lane, Bilston, deny conspiracy to rob and assault with intent to rob along with a 17-year-old boy.

Mr Benjamin Nicholls, for Howell, said there was no bogus security guard and Mr Nikolakopoulos; story was a "pack of lies".

The trial continues.