Drug addict denies Oswestry off-licence knife attack
A man accused of robbing an off-licence at knife point was "wide-eyed" and "excitable" when arrested minutes after the incident, a jury has been told.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Wednesday that Carl Cowans, 35, was arrested at a flat about a mile away from the Boozed Up off-licence in Salop Road, Oswestry, about 20 minutes after it had been raided.
PC Henry King-Salter, the officer who arrested Cowans, told the jury of eight women and four men that he had been alerted to the robbery on the night of November 21 before attending the flat in Chaucer Road minutes later.
The officer told the court while he was at the address Cowans arrived soaking wet and after asking why he was there and searching him, a wallet "bulging" with notes was found on Cowans.
PC King-Salter said: "He was soaking wet. It was raining heavily outside.
"He was very wide-eyed but almost a bit of an excitable state and he was very out of breath.
"I asked him what he was doing there and he said he was coming to visit his friend who lived at the address.
"I asked why he was out of breath and he said it was from running up the stairs. His explanation would not have explained why he was out of breath so I was suspicious.
"I searched him out of suspicion. I found a wallet which was tucked down the small of his back inside the waist band of his trousers.
"I removed the wallet and I could see it was bulging with notes."
PC King-Salter said he also recovered a packet of Lambert & Butler blue cigarettes and a lighter.
The court has previously heard from Harkamal Dhillon, who was working in the shop on the night of the alleged robbery.
He said he had been confronted by a man armed with a knife who demanded money from the till.
Mr Dhillon told the court he remembered putting about £450 into a plastic bag, made up of one 50 pound note and the rest in other denominations.
He also recalled handing over some cigarettes including a packet of Lambert & Butler blue.
Mr Dhillon also identified Cowans as the robber during a video identification parade the next day, the court heard.
Cowans, of Garth Owen, Newtown, Powys, denies a charge of robbery and a charge of being in possession of a bladed article.
The trial continues.
