Woman 'forced to drive getaway car'
A woman claimed she drove complete strangers to a house in a rural hamlet, unaware that they were going to carry out an armed robbery.
Simone O'Neil told a jury that a T-shirt was put over her head and she was forced to drive two of the gang away after the raid near Bridgnorth.
The 22-year-old from Marshall Road, Willenhall, is alleged to be one of five people behind the break-in at a house in Wootton where an Audi A6 , keys to a BMW motorbike, handbag containing cash and bank cards and a laptop were stolen.
All are on trial after denying burglary. Giving evidence O'Neil said she was in her car in Penn Fields, Wolverhampton, last July when a man started flirting with her and she agreed to give him a lift.
As he got in beside her, two other men got in the back seat, the jury heard. O'Neill said the man in the front seat told her to follow a Golf in front.
After a while they came to Durkin Lane where the occupants of both cars got out and she was told to wait.
She then described how an unseen person put a grey T-shirt over her head and threatened her. She said: "They said if I told anyone they would kidnap me, that they knew where I lived. I didn't know what to do. I didn't tell anyone because I was scared."
O'Neill told the jury that after dropping off the pair in Bilston she drove around for a while and then went to a friend's house for something to eat as previously arranged.
She was arrested 10 days later and held in custody for a week and her car seized by police. She told them she was unaware of two imitation weapons, a pump-action shotgun and a BB gun in the car boot.
Nicholas Alexander, 26, of Chorley Gardens, Bilston, brothers Levi and Donovan Wilson, aged 19 and 18 respectively, both of Cross Lane, Dudley, Omari Maitland, 18, of Leslie Road, Park Village, Wolverhampton and O'Neil also deny being in possession of the imitation weapons at the time of the raid. The case continues.
