A ROBBERY in which a Blackburn security guard was shot in the leg was an inside job, a jury was told.

Imran Aslam was shot in the thigh at point blank range despite handing over a cash cassette containing £20,000 during the raid in Cherry Tree, Blackburn.

Loomis security guard Simon Ginn, 28, of Water Street, Accrington, was providing information to Colin McCash.

McCash 31, of Spencer Street, Accrington, then organised the raid, as well as another robbery in Thornton Cleveleys.

Ginn yesterday pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.

McCash had earlier pleaded guilty to the Blackburn robbery on December 11, 2008 and another cash-in-transit raid in Thornton Cleveleys in August 2008.

Yesterday four men and one woman went on trial accused of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Hugh McKee, prosecuting, said: “Mr McCash was the organiser of these robberies. It is not said he took part in taking the money, but he used the information given to him by Simon Ginn.

“Simon Ginn was a security guard for Loomis and was one of the two on duty during the Thornton Cleveleys robbery. He was inside the building when John Moss (his colleague) was threatened.

“You will see in the evidence a lot of contact between Simon Ginn and Colin McCash, giving McCash the necessary information in order to give others the information to carry out the robberies.”

Dean Farrell, 22, of Billinge Avenue, Blackburn, denies two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and wounding with intent.

David Evans, 20, of Bonsall Street, Blackburn, denies conspiracy to commit robbery in Blackburn and wounding with intent.

Billy Anker, 27, of Nuttall Street, Blackburn, denies conspiracy to commit robbery in Blackburn and possession of illegal ammunition.

James Mulholland, 37, of Windermere Avenue, Accrington, denies conspiracy to commit robbery in Thornton.

Samantha Knight, 24, of Cavendish Place, Blackburn, denies two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.

During Mr McKee's opening, the jury was told that members of the seven-strong gang planned and executed two cash-in-transit robberies on Loomis vans in the space of five months.

The prosecution allege that in the run-up to the robbery at Indigo Circle estate agents on Preston Old Road, Cherry Tree, certain defendants had been 'watching and using information from deliveries' on December 4 and 8.

Mr McKee said the jury would hear evidence that people had seen a motorbike riding up and down the canal towpath close by – which they claim was the gang planning their escape route.

The prosecution say Anker provided the gun used to shoot the security guard Mr Aslam, despite him having already handed over the cash cassette containing £20,000.

The jury heard Farrell and Evans carried out the Blackburn raid and Mulholland and Farrell carried out the robbery at Morrisons supermarket, Thornton Cleveleys, where £50,000 was taken.

Knight, the former partner of 'organiser' McCash, is accused of taking part in a 'reconnaissance' with her then-boyfriend the night before the Thornton raid and the crown say is also implicated in the second raid by phone records.

Mr McKee said the crown's case was built around 'telephony evidence' showing when and where calls and texts were made, and who they were made to and from.

During the first day of the trial, the jury was also shown silent CCTV footage of the Blackburn robbery and the moment the security guard, Mr Aslam, was shot at point blank range in the leg.

Five days after the shooting, police revealed the burned out cash cassette had been found.

The jury was told a Lancashire Telegraph report of that breakthrough prompted an exchange of texts between Anker and his girlfriend, in which she told him to go and buy the paper.

He replied: “They have nothing, don't worry.”

The court heard that the gun was later found, in April 2009, still with live rounds in, by two young children and given to the police.

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