A Supreme Court jury yesterday heard how three Police officers armed with sub-machine guns converged on Riddell's Bay to nab fleeing bank robbers.

P.c. Stephen Donnelly of the Police Emergency Response Team (ERT) described the scene during the trial of Michael Eugene Dillas and Rupert Elroy Archibald.

Both men -- represented by lawyers Victoria Pearman and Archibald Warner -- deny two counts of armed robbery and using and carrying firearms in connection with the gang robbery at the Bank of Bermuda in Somerset last year.

The men -- armed with a pair of handguns -- allegedly participated with two others in the theft of some $37,500.

After fleeing along East Shore Road on motorcycles the masked robbers tried to escape across the Great Sound in a rented Boston Whaler type boat.

P.c. Donnelly said he and two other officers with flak jackets and sub-machine guns found Dillas and Archibald inside a wooded area near the Riddell's Bay Golf Course.

"I ran to them and shouted `Armed Police. Stay where you are. Put your hands in the air where I can see them', '' said the firearms expert.

"They were lying face up,'' he continued. "It looked to me as if they were trying to get as low as they could.'' P.c. Donnelly said he and the two other ERT members "covered'' the defendants while other officers arrested them.

But he denied suggestions by both Mr. Warner and Ms Pearman that the officers physically held down Archibald or Dillas.

Also yesterday, Gary James Ray, a resident of the East Shore area, told the nine-woman, three-man jury he heard the men as they made their getaway near his home.

Mr. Ray said he then pointed out the escape route to an officer who arrived moments later.

Although he only saw the men briefly as the two cycles sped past, Mr. Ray described one of them as a "baby-faced'',"brown-skinned'' man.

And Det. Insp. Stephen Shaw -- who took up the water-chase in a high-powered speed boat -- told the jury he watched the actions of the robbers through a pair of binoculars.

The Crown -- represented by Patrick Doherty and Brian Calhoun -- is expected to conclude its case on Monday. Chief Justice Austin Ward is presiding.