West Ham striker Andy Carroll has given evidence after a gun-wielding motorcyclist tried to rob him of his watch at traffic lights last year.
The Premier League footballer was returning home from his club’s training ground when he was chased by two motorcycles, Basildon Crown Court heard.
Jack O’Brien, 22, denies attempting to rob the 28-year-old on 2 November 2016.
Carroll’s 999 call was played to the jury, in which he was heard saying: “There’s two motorbikes, one’s behind me pulling out a gun, I don’t know what to do.”
Beeping is heard in the background, and Carroll tells the call handler: “Oh s***, I’ve hit loads of cars, I don’t know what to do, he’s just hit my car.”
Prosecutor Simon Gladwell told the court that two bikers chased Carroll after one approached him at a set of traffic lights in Hainault, northeast London, and demanded his £22,000 watch.
Carroll told the jury: “I just pulled up at the traffic lights, my window was open, a bike pulled up next to me and said ‘Nice watch’.”
He said he replied “thanks” and told the court he thought he recognised the biker.
“He had his crash helmet on with his visor up,” said Carroll.
“I stared at him for about 10 seconds as I thought I recognised him and thought he was going to have a conversation. I went to drive away and he said ‘Give me your watch’.”
He said to start with he “didn’t know if it was a joke” but, when he did a U-turn, both bikes turned and followed him.
He eventually arrived back at the training ground and told the 999 operator there were security staff there.
At one point he tells the call handler: “I’m a Premier League footballer.”
“I’ve probably just hit about 10 cars on the way here,” he said.
Prosecutor Simon Gladwell said police arrested Mr O’Brien at a house in Dagenham, where they found him in the front bedroom “hiding in the bed frame under the mattress”.
Mr Gladwell said police seized a crash helmet and Ducati jacket at the east London property and a Suzuki motorbike was seized from the back garden.
“The motorcycle used in the alleged attempted robbery was the same motorcycle that was seized at the time of Jack O’Brien’s arrest,” he added.
The court heard that the rider of the bike used in the alleged attempted robbery wore the same crash helmet and jacket seized at the time of Mr O’Brien’s arrest.
Mr Gladwell said Mr O’Brien had pleaded guilty to a string of burglaries in October and November 2016 in April, in which items including jewellery, watches and cash were stolen.
“At the time of each of the burglaries Jack O’Brien used the same motorcycle that was used in the attempted robbery of Andy Carroll,” said Mr Gladwell.
He added that in each of the burglaries Mr O’Brien also used the same crash helmet and jacket worn by the biker in the attempted robbery of Mr Carroll.
Michael Edmonds, defending, said Mr O’Brien, of Navarre Gardens, Romford, east London, was not the biker.
He said Mr O’Brien had used the motorcycle, jacket and helmet for crime before, but that it was he was not using the bike on that occasion.
The trial continues.
Source: 
SkyNews.Com
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