Shot guard sues for £300,000 over lack of bullet-proof vest

A SECURITY guard who still has a bullet lodged in his body after he was shot by an armed robber during a hold-up at a bank is suing his former employer for damages.

Arthur Leckenby told a court yesterday that if he had been wearing a bulletproof vest it would "easily" have covered the part of his abdomen where he was hit.

The former crew leader said he was not wearing body armour when he was part of a team that called at a branch of the Bank of Scotland in Kilmarnock on 16 May 2006.

Mr Leckenby, 53, said he returned to the security van to look at a code book for a number when he came under attack from two robbers.

He said there were demands for money and he felt "a sort of kung fu kick".

He told the Court of Session in Edinburgh: "Then this other man came in and I was pushed right back and I heard a bang. I saw something shiny.

"I felt something - a sharp pain, a hot feeling - and then I saw blood. I believed I was shot by a firearm."

He said he was grabbed around the neck but managed to get his attackers off.

"I shrugged them off and I managed to get the bank door open. I closed the door but I had to push against the two trying to get in the bank," he said.

"They were jumping up and down shouting 'We want the money' like a couple of people off their head."

He said he crawled to safety and a policeman came into the branch and comforted him until the area was made secure for an ambulance to get to him. He said he felt his life was "ebbing away".

He was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock where he underwent an emergency operation.

He said he was told he was "very lucky" to survive but that the bullet remained lodged in him as it was too dangerous to remove it.

Mr Leckenby said he was "very, very anxious" after the shooting: "I wasn't sleeping because I got flashbacks when I closed my eyes. I relived those moments when I closed my eyes."

He was given anti-depressants and sleeping pills and said when he did manage to sleep he had nightmares about the robbery and "about being shot and how lucky I am to be alive". He continues to have counselling.

Mr Leckenby, from Glasgow, was asked what his current symptoms were as a result of the shooting and said: "Very, very anxious of who is near me, who is behind me, who is in front of me, who is walking down the street, who is driving down the street.

"I feel I am being followed, I feel I am being watched and there are two gunmen still out there."

He was said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and told the court: "I had heard of it from soldiers returning from wars."

Mr Leckenby said he had scarring from the gunshot and surgery, and suffers pain from the bullet wound when he stands.Following the shooting, Mr Leckenby raised an action against his former employer, Manchester-based Brinks, seeking 300,000 compensation.

In the action, it was claimed that he had not been provided with a bulletproof vest or "any means of defending himself against such an attack".

The firm claims that the sum sued for is excessive.

The hearing continues.