OAP tells of high-speed chase with 'robber's getaway car'

Published on Monday 22 February 2010 21:14

A HIGH-SPEED chase between a pensioner's car and the suspected getaway vehicle in a village post office robbery was described to a jury yesterday.

Peter Mather, 77, said he pursued the dark-coloured Mitsubishi 4x4 for several miles along country roads and managed to get close enough for his wife to note its registration number. "It was not just a Sunday afternoon drive," Mr Mather, a farmer, told the High Court in Edinburgh.

Patrick Loyden, 41, of Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, denies assaulting Sheila Jeffrey, 72, postmistress at Town Yetholm, near Kelso, in the Borders, and robbing her of 127 on 26 September, 2008. It is alleged he presented a knife at her, cut her on the hands and repeatedly struck her head against a metal cabinet.

The jury was told a man wearing a crash helmet had been seen running from the post office and getting into a Mitsubishi 4x4 parked nearby. A witness waved down Mr Mather's car and told him what had happened, and he set off in pursuit with his wife, Ann, 76, in the passenger seat.

The couple managed to get a brief look at the registration number, but each remembered different letters. The chase continued into the country and along narrow roads. He lost sight of the 4x4, and then saw it again as it was silhouetted against the sky going over the brow of a hill.

At one stage, Mr Mather saw a green light at approaching road works and he said he would normally have slowed down, but he "put my foot down and went through".

Mr Mather drove as fast as he could on a straight stretch of road, but the 4x4 kept pulling further away from him. Then, it was caught behind a tractor pulling a trailer of straw and he managed to get within a few feet of the vehicle. His wife noted the registration, and he saw he had been wrong earlier about the letter. The couple later contacted the police.

The trial continues.