An unwilling accomplice told how he was ordered to drive a getaway car for an armed robbery by a friend who had flagged his car down.

Roderick Bean told the Supreme Court trial of Randolph Lightbourne how he had been told to drive two men into Somerset and then wait for them in a nearby cul-de-sac.

Mr. Bean said Lightbourne -- carrying a helmet, back pack and trash bag -- was standing by St. James Church, Somerset, when he drove by in his car. He waved him down and asked for a favour: "He told me to drive and he would tell me what he wanted,'' said Mr. Bean.

After visiting Mr. Bean's home -- where he was initially heading before the meeting -- the pair drove along Gilbert Lane.

"Randy Lightbourne told me to go there, he told me he was going to hit a bank today,'' said Mr. Bean.

"I told him `not around me', I am not a person to get into trouble.

"He reached down in his back pack and brought out a gun. He lifted it up facing towards me and told me to drive the car and I wouldn't get hurt.'' After driving to Charing Cross, they picked up another man, Reid Jones, also carrying trash bags and dropped them off onto East Shore Road.

Bean was told to wait in Laurel Lane for the two men. He was threatened that he would get hurt if he left.

Randolph Lightbourne, 32, of Devon Springs, Devonshire, denies robbery at the Somerset branch of the Bank of Butterfield in July 1997. In addition he pleads not guilty to using a firearm, unlawful wounding and carrying a firearm with intent to commit an offence.

A second man, Reid Jones, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for his part in the robbery.

Earlier, Sgt. Christopher Clarke told how he had seen Bean's white Toyota drive down Laurel Lane towards his police car, stop and reverse into a driveway.

Three men had got out and other officers gave chase through the garden of the residence, he said.

The householder, Sonya Lapsley, recalled hearing a bang and looking out of the window to see Randy Lightbourne holding a gun in the air and Reid Jones standing outside the car.

Miss Lapsley told Crown counsel Patrick Doherty that she knew the two previously but said she didn't know who the third man was.

Under cross-examination from defence counsel Mark Telemaque, Miss Lapsley agreed that she had only seen the men for a few seconds but disagreed when he suggested that she had told Police that it was in fact Randy's brother, Roger, she had seen.

But later she said she knew it wasn't Roger as she knew both brothers, and through her job as a prison officer was aware that Roger Lightbourne was on remand at Westgate at the time of the robbery.

Miss Lapsley agreed that she had not told Police about what she had seen immediately because of her fears over her job, but only later told them about the incident.