A young man from London was said to have backed-up a knifepoint robbery in the Bicester Village car park.
Reece Gordon, 27, was seen on CCTV in the car park of the Bicester designer shopping centre on February 16 being handed a bag containing a brand new Moncler jacket, a jury at Oxford Crown Court heard.
His friend, who has not been identified, was at the driver’s door with a knife in his hand demanding the man and his girlfriend hand over the items.
Opening the case against Gordon on Wednesday (August 3), prosecutor Matthew Knight said: “Unfortunately for the defendant, he had travelled from the London area in his personal vehicle registered to him.”
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It was this that led to his vehicle being stopped in the London area, arrested and taken to Banbury police station, where he was said to have answered no comment to all questions asked.
Mr Knight said the unknown man who allegedly made the threats with the knife had ‘not been caught by the police’.
“The defence case, as it appears to be at this stage, is that the defendant denies having any knowledge of what his associate was doing. There was a conversation between them [about] a debt owed by the [male victim] to the unknown male,” Mr Knight said.
The jury was told it was expected the defendant will say he believed he had permission to take the bag containing the Moncler jacket.
The prosecutor said: “It remains at all times for the Crown to prove the case. The Crown must make you sure of the defendant’s guilt.”
During his opening of the case, Mr Knight played a number of CCTV clips from the Bicester Village shopping centre.
The defendant and his friend had arrived in Bicester at around 4.30pm, it was said. By around 4.45pm to 4.50pm they were seen in the Moncler outlet.
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Footage from the shop’s security camera system showed the two men on the same upper floor as the couple who, prosecutors say, the pair later robbed.
Keeping up a commentary while the video was played, Mr Knight suggested the alleged robbers were ‘not really shopping’.
When the couple went back downstairs to the till points, the two London men followed ‘about 10 seconds later’.
There, they could be seen ‘pretending to look at some hats’, Mr Knight suggested. The man whose jacket would later be taken was seen paying for the puffa-style coat, which the jury was told cost a ‘rather eye-watering £665’.
Other CCTV from the car park showed the unknown man at the alleged victim’s driver’s side door, while Gordon, with his distinctive long hair, looped around to the back of the vehicle.
Gordon, of Harrow, denies two counts of robbery. The trial continues.
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