A man has told a jury he was nowhere near the scene of a vicious robbery in which a couple were assaulted.
Robert Ure, 24, claims he was in Bamber Bridge at the time the couple were set upon as they walked home from the Lane Ends pub in Ashton.
Standing in the witness box at Preston Crown Court, Ure said he had never heard of Woodplumpton Road, where the robbery took place.
He denied any involvement, saying he had spent the evening drinking with friends on the streets in Bamber Bridge.
Ure is charged with robbery after a man was struck with a metal bar and his partner dragged into the road by her hair in an unprovoked attack at around 11pm on November 25. The woman’s handbag was also stolen.
A few days later both the man and the woman picked Ure out in identity proceedings at Preston Police Station.
But in court Ure maintained his story that on November 25 he left his home in Pinfold Street, Preston, and went to visit family and friends in Bamber Bridge, only returning at around 2am.
Throughout the evening, Ure said he drank bottles of Stella and spent time outside the White Bull pub in Station Road, although he did not go inside as he was barred.
He also visited a friends house where they played Fifa 2011 on the XBox, and as his mother’s house, where he got changed into a dark grey tracksuit he had bought earlier in the day, he told the jury.
But during cross examination, Ian Durston, prosecuting, said: “Everything you have told this jury today is a lie.
“You were in Preston. You lived in Preston - you had been living there for eight months.
“You were there (that) evening as well. You were there at 11 o’clock. You were in Woodplumpton Road, wearing your dark tracksuit and your dark jacket with the hood up.
“You saw an opportunity to look like a big man in front of your friends. When you were making your escape you thought ‘I’ll have that bag too’.” However Ure denied the allegations and maintains his not guilty plea to robbery.
(Proceeding)