By Brian Smith

STAFF AT a Dundee city centre pub told the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday of the afternoon last summer when a gunman burst into the bar’s office, demanding they open the safe and hand over the money.

Nether Inn assistant manager Darren Anderson told jurors he thought it was a friend playing a practical joke and the first thing he said was, “Very funny.”

He asked if the gun was real and was given the question “Would you like to find out?” as a response. “I said no,” he added.

The trial heard the inept armed robbery was carried out after the weekend’s takings had been banked and most of what remained, in the one safe staff had access to, was change. More than half the £1000 alleged to have been taken was dumped during the escape and a magazine of ammunition was found on the office floor afterwards.

Ronald Lazenby McKay (29) denies that on August 21 last year, at the Nether Inn, Nethergate, he assaulted Darren Anderson and Victoria Byers by presenting an imitation firearm at them, threatened to shoot them, demanded locked safes and a cash box be opened and robbed Darren Anderson of £1005, keys and a video tape.

He denies he illegally possessed an imitation pistol with the intention of causing people to believe unlawful violence would be used against them.

He also denies that on the same day, at the Nether Inn and at Dundee Rep, Tay Square, having committed the alleged armed robbery, he removed the CCTV tape from the Nether Inn; pretended to John Chapman he was Stewart Johnston or Steven Williamson and that he was looking for work and did this with intent to defeat the ends of justice and avoid detection, prosecution and arrest.

He further denies that on September 4, at police headquarters in Bell Street, having been arrested on a charge of assault and robbery, he shaved off his eyebrows and altered his appearance with the intention to avoid being identified as the perpetrator at a video identification parade and attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Anderson said one of the staff, Victoria Byers, had called in on her day off and they were talking in the office after 2pm when the door opened briefly.

Mr Anderson said, “I called out, ‘Can you not read, it says private on the door.’ Vicky went to the door and looked out. She said there were two people outside. They looked a bit dodgy, a bit shifty.”

Before he could move to look for himself, a masked man with a gun in his right hand burst through the door. He described the mask as being like “a painter’s mask,” covering the nose and the mouth.

The man was wearing a tracksuit in “Barcelona’s colours,” white trainers and a peaked cap.

He described the man as around 6ft tall, in his late 20s with “designer stubble, maybe a bit longer.”

At the start of the incident he said, “Where’s the money,” or “Get the money,” and made repeated threats throughout, saying at one point, “I’ll put a bullet in you,” the witness said.

Mr Anderson said he began taking change bags out of the safe but they were heavy and as the robber had a gun in one hand, he had to drag them along the floor with his free hand to the office door. He then saw the arm of someone else outside reach in and take the bags.

He said the robber then demanded that another safe be opened but could not understand that it was on a time lock and could only be opened at certain times of the day. He also demanded a small cash box sitting on a shelf in the office.

He made them hand over the video from the bar CCTV system and asked for keys to the office door as he began to leave. Mr Anderson said he picked a set at random on a rack beside the door and pointed at them.

When the man left, he could not lock them in and they then heard the fire door nearby bang shut.

After waiting a few minutes he called the police.

Cross-examined by solicitor advocate Chris Fyffe, for Ronald McKay, Mr Anderson accepted he had not been able to pick out anyone at a video identification parade, and Victoria Byers (20) agreed she had picked out two people she thought were similar in appearance to the robber, adding that in one case, only the shaved eyebrows raised a doubt in her mind.

Both witnesses insisted they were certain the man they had pointed out in the dock was the man they had seen on August 21 in their office with a gun.

Scenes of crime officer Grant Thomson said he took photographs of a number of items of interest in the Greenmarket area behind the Nether Inn.

There were three footprints and a cast was taken of each. On ground between DCA and Sensation, a bag was found containing 25 smaller bags, each with £20 in £1 coins and a short distance away another bag was found, this time with 16 smaller bags, each with £10 in 20p pieces.

The trial continues before Lord Uist and a jury of eight men and seven women.