AN ALLEGED burglar suggested the crime for which he is currently standing trial was an “insurance scam”.

The extraordinary claim came 45 minutes into Shohidur Rahman’s stint in the witness box at Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday afternoon.

The 42-year-old denies stealing a wheelbarrow, tools and a pair of trainers from a garage off Bright Street last June. Lawyers for the prosecution and defence are expected to make their closing speeches to jurors later this morning.

Rahman is said to have been one of two men caught redhanded by the homeowner’s daughter at lunchtime on June 21, 2019.

Giving evidence yesterday, the woman claimed she saw two men at the back of the garden carrying a wheelbarrow.

She said she began walking towards the men, wrongly believing one of them to be her nephew. She started running towards them after glimpsing the face of one man.

The woman told jurors she had gone out of the back gate and found a man in the lane, who she snapped on her mobile phone. She said the man - who prosecutors say was Rahman - had run away when she said she was calling the police.

Under cross examination from Rahman’s barrister, Rebecca Da Silva, the woman said: “He did say it was nothing to do with him, but I saw him with my own eyes.”

Her son later told police a £400 Panasonic power drill had been stolen from the garage along with a £40 wheelbarrow, screws and nails worth £40, hand tools worth £200 and a £50 pair of Nike trainers.

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Bright Street, Gorse Hill Picture: GOOGLE

Rahman denies involvement in the burglary. He says he was in the area after seeing an old friend and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In his defence statement, a document prepared by his lawyers setting out his defence to the charge of burglary, he said he’d seen another man running away from the scene carrying a toolbox and drill.

The alleged thief, who gave evidence yesterday afternoon, said from the witness box: “The person who’s actually done the crime has run off. He’s got nothing to do with me. The police have got nothing, no evidence, not even the proceeds they claim have been stolen – I don’t see that. Is it in my possession? It’s nine tenths of the law and I haven’t got none of it.”

Rahman went on to claim that the woman who had taken a picture of him behind the house was older than the woman who hours earlier said she’d snapped the alleged burglar. He added: “It’s probably an insurance scam.”

Cross-examining Rahman, prosecutor George Threlfall said: “The jury will have to decide whether she’s honest, truthful, accurate and reliable as a witness. Likewise, they will have to ask themselves whether there is a word of truth in anything you said in the witness box this afternoon.”

The defendant replied: “I’ve got no reason to lie.” He urged jurors to check his modus operandi, adding he was not a burglar.

Rahman, of Beaumont Road, Walcot, denies non dwelling burglary. The trial continues.