A lorry carrying computer equipment worth £171,000 was flagged down by bogus policemen and hijacked soon after leaving an Evesham company, Worcester Crown Court has heard.

Driver Alan Jones, aged 57, was forced from his cab at gunpoint, tied up and bundled into the boot of a car.

A gang then drove his Amtrak articulated lorry to Telford, where the load was transferred to two other smaller lorries. Part of it was hidden in Leicestershire and the rest in a garage at the Telford home of Terence Cutler, it was alleged.

Terrified Mr Jones was released on the M4 near Swindon four hours after his kidnap ordeal began on Friday, June 21, last year.

He was hijacked shortly after leaving Evesham.Com, on the Vale Business Park, at around 8.30pm, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Nigel Godsmark QC said gang member Terence Devine had worked for Amtrak, the haulage company contracted to collect computers daily from Evesham.

He had been on the Evesham run himself and knew the routes and times. "He had inside knowledge," he said.

Deny conspiracy to rob

On trial are: brothers Aaron Johnson, aged 19, and Simon Johnson, 21, and their father Frederick Johnson, 43, all of Culmington Drive, Stirchley, Telford; Andrew Currie, 34, of Bourneside Drive, Brookside, Telford; Cutler, 33, of Ellis Peters Drive, Telford; Philip Price, 47, of West Road, Wellington; Devine, 38, of Coronation Road, Walsall Wood, Walsall; Philip Dolphin, 40, of Bishopdale, Brookside, Telford, and Stephen Booth, 39, of Hurleybrook Way, Leegomery, Telford.

All nine defendants deny conspiracy to rob Mr Jones of his load and conspiracy to kidnap him.

Cutler and Price also deny possession of a firearm during a robbery.

Cutler and Simon Johnson further deny false imprisonment of another man in December 2001, and possession of a firearm with intent to commit false imprisonment.

Mr Jones had driven through Pershore and was seen on CCTV cameras being followed by a Vauxhall Vectra containing two men dressed like policemen, said Mr Godsmark.

As he got on to the M5 slip road at Junction 7 at Worcester the Vectra overtook him, flashing red and blue lights in its rear window.

One man produced a handgun before the trucker was hooded and bound with plastic ties.

But during Operation Vertigo, launched by West Mercia police, Mr Jones picked out Cutler on an identity parade as the bogus policeman who carried the gun, the QC said.

The trial continues.