A BOGUS detective claiming to be acting on inside information held up a service station for almost £18,000 in cash, a court heard.

Mark Fisher used an imitation pistol to rob Gary Walker, who had only taken over the running of the Clock Tower petrol garage, in Chilworth, near Southampton, only two days earlier.

Southampton Crown Court was told that the previous manager and another member of staff, Lesley Carr, had been suspended after money had disappeared from the premises.

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Fisher, claiming to be a detective chief inspector, told Mr Walker in his office that the service station’s owners, Total, had asked the police to investigate the loss.

Prosecutor Simon Foster described how Fisher wanted to look at the CCTV, but was told he could not take away the hard drive because Mr Walker had not asked the suppliers for permission.

When Fisher insisted he wanted to take it away immediately, the manager became increasingly anxious and asked to see Fisher’s warrant card.

Mr Foster said: “He didn’t produce that but an imitation gun, black with a square nozzle, and told him: ‘You’ve got ten seconds to open the safe or I’ll pop you.’”

Mr Walker, who has a wife and children, was told not to do anything silly and that a car was outside his home. He opened the safe and handed over two money bags containing £17,790.

He told Mr Walker to wait five minutes before raising the alarm.

Mr Foster said the gunman was then seen to run to a stolen white van to make his getaway.

The prosecution alleges that Carr supplied inside information to Fisher about the service station and details of Mr Walker’s family.

Fisher and his partner, Zena Long, were arrested about ten days after the robbery in an Audi.

Fisher had £5,700 cash in a bag slung around his neck.

In police interviews, Long described how Carr had received £3,000 and she and Fisher had spent the next couple of weeks spending the cash, including buying the Audi. Long, said Mr Foster, was “heavily involved in the background”.

Fisher, 43, and Long, 36, both of Riversdale Close, Southampton, and Carr, 38, of Darwin Road, Shirley, deny conspiracy to rob.

Fisher has also denied possessing an imitation fireman to cause Mr Walker fear that violence would be used against him, but has admitted stealing the white van.

Proceeding