A lorry driver who ferried tons of chocolate out of a warehouse said he didn't realise they were stolen.

In a statement, Anthony Deakin told Gloucester Crown Court how he was recruited to join the 'Chocolate Run' - ferrying tons of stolen confectionery out of a massive warehouse.

In a statement to Gloucester Crown Court, Mr Deakin and said at no time did he realise that the loads of Mars bars, Bounties, Galaxies and M&Ms, worth £500,000, were stolen.

Mr Deakin's statement was read yesterday (FRI) at the trial of Martin Keys, 31, who is accused of conspiring to steal more than £500,000 worth of chocolate from the Tibbett and Britten warehouse at Bicester, where he worked. The prosecution claims Keys, a shift worker at the warehouse, conspired with Abdi Singh Ninas, from Birmingham, to steal the confectionery.

Keys, of Wyck Hill, Stow-on-the-Wold, is alleged to have abused his position of trust at the warehouse to create bogus consignments of chocolate which were then collected by lorries sent from Birmingham by Ninas.

Keys denies conspiracy to steal confectionery between July 1996 and April last year and has also pleaded not guilty to two charges of stealing confectionery and one of attempted theft. In his statement, Mr Deakin, who was too ill to attend court, said he recalled two Asian men called 'Sonny', allegedly Abdi Ninas, and 'Sal', hired a lorry in July 1996 and recruited him to drive it.

On his first journey to the Bicester warehouse the two Asian men accompanied him and Sonny directed him, he said.

"Sonny and Sal hid in the sleeping part of the cab," he said. "At the gatehouse, it appeared I was expected."

Mr Deakin said he was directed to a loading bay and the two Asians continued to lie on the bed while the vehicle was loaded with chocolate.

When he got back to Birmingham he was directed by Sonny to a shop in Ladyhill Road, Sparkbrook, where he had to manoeuvre his 40ft trailer down a narrow alley off Alfred Street, the court heard.

The lorry was then unloaded and Mr Deakin saw the confectionary go into the shop.

Before he left, Sal gave him £50 "for a drink".

The prosecution claims Keys made huge profits from the scam and deposited more than £150,000 in five bank and building society accounts. The prosecution claims Keys took £52,000 in cash in a bag to a solicitor's office as part payment for a house he bought with his girlfriend, Emma Smiley, at Stow.

The prosecution also claims Keys's girlfriend, Emma Smiley, 25, of Glebe Court, Dunston, Bicester, denies two 'money laundering' charges of helped Keys retain the benefit of crime by accepting a payment of £54,750 into her First Direct bank account and by allowing a £165,000 cottage in Stow to be bought in her name.

She denies both charges.

The trial continues.

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