Robbery not me, says crash man ‘driving for dealer’

ACONVICTED armed robber, accused of raiding a luxury designer shop in Southport at gun point, has told a jury that they had the wrong man.

Tadiwa Chihota, a semiprofessional footballer, said on Tuesday, November 13 that while he was the driver of the alleged getaway car, which crashed after a police chase along Formby bypass, he did not rob the shop.

The 20-year-old, representing himself in court, claims that a drug dealer asked him to drive him to Southport and bring an air pistol and that man was the actual robber.

Chihota pointed out in his closing speech to the jury at Liverpool Crown Court that the main witness, the manager of the store, Flannels in Tulketh Street, described the robber as mixed race with a beard and in his late 20s.

The defendant, who is black, said he couldn’t be mistaken for mixed race and had been almost clean shaven at the time of the incident on May 29 this year.

He also said he had sent 100 text messages over 45 minutes around the time of the raid – “impossible” while carrying out a robbery.

He pointed out that the robber had a large brown satchel and that was not in the car when he was arrested and has never been found.

Chihota, of Clovelly Road, Walton, described the prosecution case as “weak” and added that even if his case “sounds unbelievable it doesn’t mean you should disregard it. There is reason for you to believe it.”

He said that after being sentenced to 40 months custody when he was 15 for robbing a bank armed with an imitation gun he had been rehabilitated and therapy showed his motivation for that offence was the lack of a father figure.

He told the jury he came from a family of lawyers, nurses, teachers and architects and his mum, a nurse, had handed him into police after the teenage robbery.

After his release he “turned to Christianity” and by 18 he was at Tranmere Rovers Football Academy for 18 months.

He continued as a semipro with other teams and also got an apprenticeship with a construction firm and offers from universities to study quantity surveying.

Chihota said he had no financial motive for the robbery and said it was “mistaken identity’’. He added: ‘‘I am not the person I was when I was 15, I made all the right choices.”

Questioned about this by Gerald Baxter, prosecuting, he agreed that he had been buying drugs and minding some for the man he claims was the robber.

He accepted he had willingly driven him to Southport in a car with false plates and on the way back knew he was carrying stolen goods, had no insurance for the car and drove it dangerously.

The jury has heard that the robber, his face partly hidden by a peaked cap and wrap-around sunglasses, tried to make off with £4,100 worth of clothing after pointing a BB gun at the manager but only fled with one bag containing two pairs of trainers worth £1,000.

A police chase ended with the car crashing into a garden wall, ending up on its roof.

Chihota climbed out of the wreckage and was caught after climbing over a fence. The BB gun, which looked like a Colt pistol, was found on the ground next to the car.

Chihota denies robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to commit robbery.

The jury heard that he has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, handling stolen registration plates and fraudulently using the stolen plates.

The case continues.