A man accused of robbing a bank with an imitation firearm has denied being responsible for the armed raid.

Gregory Tucker told the Supreme Court he spent the day of the robbery with his cousin swimming near Fort St Catherine and then smoking marijuana on the rocks.

The 24-year-old is charged with robbing Butterfield Bank in St George’s on June 9 last year and threatening staff with a toy gun before escaping with cash.

The court has heard how a piece of the imitation weapon was accidentally left at the scene and was later found to have a significant portion of Mr Tucker’s DNA on it.

Taking the stand yesterday, Mr Tucker said he earned money from landscape gardening as well as fixing mobile phones and computers. He also admitted selling small amounts of marijuana.

However, he maintained he was not involved in the robbery.

“I did not go into that bank or rob the Bank of Butterfield,” Mr Tucker said.

He outlined his movements on the day of the robbery and said he and his cousin had been stopped and searched by police close to the Royal Artillery Association Club as they made their way back into St George’s.

“The rest of the day I was relaxing,” he said. “My uncle came back with the car and my cousin gave me a lift to Bailey’s Bay.”

Mr Tucker was later arrested in connection with the bank robbery. In his initial police interview, Mr Tucker denied ever having contact with an imitation firearm.

However, after being confronted with the DNA evidence recovered from the scene in a second interview, he told officers that he had found a BB gun and sold it to a stranger weeks before the robbery.

Yesterday he admitted he had not been completely honest in his initial interview because police used “bribes and lies” before and in between the interviews. However, he told jurors that he was truthful in his third interview.

“The reason why I gave them a third interview was because they told me they had come into contact with a certain lady who was willing to put me in a programme to relocate me and my family and also give us money for the cost of moving.”

Earlier in the trial, his former girlfriend, Faith Best, told the jury she found rolls of cash in a box under her sofa in the property they shared.

Asked by his lawyer, Charles Richardson, about the money, Mr Tucker said: “This money was the proceeds of selling marijuana and fixing mobile phones.”

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Nicole Smith suggested to Mr Tucker that he had strung Ms Best along and had not made contributions to the rent, groceries or utility bills.

Mr Tucker maintained he had bought groceries and helped around the house, but he insisted he was not Ms Best’s boyfriend.

He added: “No, I was not her boyfriend. She wanted me to be her boyfriend.

“I just treated her very well. I cooked and cleaned and gave her the attention she deserved.”

Mr Tucker denies robbery and using an imitation firearm to commit an indictable offence.

The case continues.

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