Suspect threatened to fire gun - jury told

A man fleeing from police pointed a gun at a member of the public and threatened to shoot as he ran from the scene of a car crash in West Bromwich, a court heard.

Dean Isitt, aged 31, swore and told Barry Ingram: "Get out of my way or I'll shoot" as he held up what looked like the barrel of a gun, it is alleged.

Isitt is accused of being the front seat passenger in a red Vauxhall Corsa which had been taken from a woman in a car key burglary in Stourbridge and which had number plates stolen from a similar car in Tipton.

Craig Hickinbottom, aged 29, was driving the car and Conor Cox, 18, was a rear passenger when police tried to pull it over because of a "surveillance operation" on March 2, the court was told.

Hickinbottom drove on to a grass verge of a roundabout at Bromford Lane, West Bromwich.

He then drove the wrong way around the roundabout, colliding with the surveillance cars, spinning his own car 360 degrees and crashing into a fence.

Hickinbottom and Cox were arrested at the scene while a third man, who it is claimed was Isitt, fled.

He is alleged to have confronted Mr Ingram on the yard of nearby Bromford Iron & Steel.

Isitt is alleged to have fled along a canal towpath and police recovered a sawn-off shotgun hidden in a bag near the scene, which bore Isitt's fingerprints.

Mr Peter Cooke, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday that Hickinbottom and Cox each had a balaclava, face mask and gloves.

He said: "These men went out to commit crime. It can't be that they had the shotgun with them to pass it on to somebody else.

"You don't need balaclavas to do that."

Isitt was picked out in an identifiation parade by Mr Ingram and a face mask was found at a bedroom he used at a relative's house when he was arrested seven weeks after the crash.

Isitt, of Waterfall Lane, Rowley Regis; Cox, of New Street, Brierley Hill, and Hickinbottom, of no fixed address, deny possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of a stolen Vauxhall Corsa and numberplates.

Hickinbottom denies dangerous driving and the trial continues.­