A Butterfield Bank supervisor wept yesterday in Supreme Court as she recalled coming face-to-face with a gunman during a robbery.

Gregory Tucker is accused of using an imitation firearm to rob the bank’s St George’s branch on June 9 last year, and accidentally leaving the weapon’s barrel behind at the scene.

The incident happened shortly after midday on a quiet Tuesday at the bank, where eight employees and one summer student were working.

The court was shown CCTV footage from inside the building, which captured the event in full.

Supervisor Beatrice Signor told the court that the robber leapt over the counter and ran towards her with a gun in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other.

The criminal was wearing a red-hooded sweatshirt and black trousers, and had a dark cloth covering all of his face except his eyes.

“I was afraid. I didn’t know if he was going to shoot,” she said.

“He had a coarse voice and a Bermudian accent. He was shouting, ‘Give me the money and open the safe’. I was terrified.”

As this happened, Mrs Signor’s fellow supervisor Nigel Turuni emerged from his office to check on the commotion. The robber turned the imitation firearm on Mr Turuni, and demanded that he hand over “all the money” into the paper bag.

Mr Turuni opened the cash drawer of teller Laura Bottelli and “proceeded to give him the money that was available”.

“He had a weapon, so I did as I was told,” Mr Turuni told the court, adding that he felt “threatened, frightened, and afraid for my life and the lives of my colleagues”.

The money he handed to the robber consisted entirely of Bermudian currency in bill form: $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes, which were held together by paper clips and elastic bands.

“I was very nervous and very afraid, but I knew I had to remain calm,” said Mr Turuni. “He seemed satisfied and left.”

Immediately after the robber escaped on to York Street, Mr Turuni pressed a security alarm and helped Mrs Signor to lock the front doors of the building.

However, the gunman accidentally dropped the barrel of the imitation Beretta pistol used in the robbery, and forensic investigators swiftly took it away as a potentially key piece of evidence. Mr Tucker was arrested on July 2, when Detective Constable Cheryl Beech spotted him walking along King Street, Hamilton. At Hamilton Police Station, officers seized a cell phone and $210 in Bermudian currency from the defendant, while DC Beech took a DNA swab from his mouth.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Nicole Smith pointed out that Mr Tucker’s DNA was found to be a “major contributor” on the pistol barrel which was left behind during the robbery.

However, defence counsel Charles Richardson suggested to DC Beech that the defendant had an alibi in Richard Basden Jr, who had told officers that he was with Mr Tucker when the robbery took place.

The court also heard that Mr Tucker and Mr Basden had been stopped twice by police on the day of the robbery, the first time near the RAA Club in St George’s just 30 minutes after the robbery took place.

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

The case continues.

— It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding criminal court cases. This is to prevent any statements being published that may jeopardise the outcome of that case.