A Watford man is among seven on trial after a cash-in-transit driver allegedly handcuffed himself to his van’s steering wheel during a fake armed robbery.

Paul McSweeney, 55, from Watford, has denied charges of conspiracy to commit theft, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

It relates to an incident involving Andrew Measor, from Loughton in Essex, who was allegedly the “inside man” in a plot to steal banknotes worth £920,000 from Loomis on December 30, 2021.

Southwark Crown Court heard on Tuesday that Measor, 51, claimed to have used his nose to phone the depot in Dagenham, east London, because he was handcuffed to the steering wheel.

Measor, who had worked for the firm for around three years, said he had been “raided” after a man armed with a gun approached him as he left his home.

But prosecutors say the driver handcuffed himself to the steering wheel, then waited two hours before raising the alarm, in a fake robbery carried out with Stefanos Cantaris, 39, from Epping, and five other men – including McSweeney – in Ilford, east London.

While signed off from work, Measor later told a friend that it was “defo an inside job”, prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told the jury.

“That is probably one of the few things upon which Andrew Measor and the prosecution will agree during this trial – that this was an ‘inside job’.

“And so you will want to consider who it was on the inside who was able to provide Stefanos Cantaris and his co-conspirators with the information needed to execute this theft."

The court heard that Measor met Cantaris on numerous occasions in the months leading up to the theft, alleged to have been carried out in a plot with McSweeney; Terrance Burrell, 57, of Theydon Bois; Mark Kendall, 56, from Loughton; Saimir Neziri, 38, from Barnet; and Christopher Shipp, 35, from Bishop’s Stortford.

The prosecutor said to varying degrees each was involved in the theft.

"They sought to hide this by faking a robbery," she added. "They have then, to the most part, successfully hidden the money that was stolen."

Cantaris has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft, but denies conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The others have denied all three counts.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, continues.