A near neighbour of a 65-year-old man shot twice at his farm in a violent armed gang robbery was "at the heart of the conspiracy," a court was told.
Thomas Cunningham, owner of Don Luigi Italian restaurant in Formby, denies helping to plan the raid which left Charles Baldwin suffering firearm wounds to his knee and foot.
The pig farmer was sleeping in his summerhouse when a mob of shotgun-wielding men blasted off his patio doors, causing him to duck as they demanded he come out and face them.
Preston Crown Court has heard how Mr Baldwin was shot in his knee in front of his girlfriend as he was ushered inside his bungalow, on Back Lane, Aughton, near Ormskirk, and then shot again in his foot as he sat at his office desk to retrieve his cash box.
The five-strong gang left with money, bank cards and PIN numbers, sentimental jewellery, and up to four guns on the evening of July 28, 2019.
Cunningham, the jury has heard, also lived on Back Lane, the same rural road as Mr Baldwin.
Francis McEntee, prosecuting, added: "But nothing, you might imagine, that would warrant Cunningham sending masked raiders into his neighbour’s address.
"However, the link between Mr Baldwin on the one hand, and the others allegedly involved in the robbery, on the other, leads to the inevitable conclusion, we say, that Cunningham was at the heart of this conspiracy."
The prosecution say that Cunningham, 58, was not part of the armed gang who stormed the farm, but he was involved in "planning the offence, and so is part of that conspiracy."
Mr McEntee said: "None of the defendants, other than Thomas Cunningham has any link to Mr Baldwin."
When interviewed by police, the court heard Cunningham stated it was "ridiculous" to suggest that he had been involved in the robbery.
He said he was a business[man], and "made it plain that he was in his restaurant at the relevant time – that would be on CCTV."
The Formby eatery - Don Luigi - was named in court by Mr Baldwin, who also named Cunningham when giving his first statement of his ordeal to detectives from hospital bed.
Mr McEntee told the jury: "You may conclude that it would, indeed, be ridiculous to suggest that Cunningham would go into the address to carry out the robbery, as he would have been at risk of being immediately identified by a neighbour who would recognise his build, his gait and his voice.
"We invite you to conclude that his absence from the scene does little to address the weight of the evidence establishing his contacts with those who were patently present."
Cunningham, of Back Lane, Aughton, Anthony Hill, 40, of Oakdale Close, Kirkby, Craig Reynolds, 36, of Birchmuir Hey, Kirkby, and Alan Hemmings, 45, of Balmoral Close, Kirkby, Dean Sanders, 32, of St Andrews Court, North Shields, and Anthony Shrimpton, 32, of Kirkby Row, Kirkby, all deny conspiring to commit robbery.
Sanders also faces two charges of Section 18 grievous bodily harm and having a firearm with intent.
The jury was told how a man called Alan Daniels, 37, from Kirkby, has pleaded guilty to his part in the robbery and was the ringleader at the farmhouse.
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He was the person responsible for shooting Mr Baldwin twice, it was heard, and his DNA was found on the paper knife used to free the gold bracelet from the victim's wrist.
Shrimpton told detectives he'd "known Thomas Cunningham for a number of years as an associate, he had been to his restaurant, and more recently had done some work on Cunningham’s property jet washing."
Hemmings said in his interview he had read reports of the shooting and robbery in the Liverpool ECHO, but might have been scaffolding at the time.
He added he "knew Tommy Cunningham lived in that area...only knew Tommy Cunningham through the chip shop that he ran, and he may have been to his house, but had never been in."
During the raid, which the prosecution described was "excessively violent", with no need to shoot Mr Baldwin, as he was "already under the control" of the gang after they "blew off his summerhouse patio doors", he also had a gun pressed against his teeth.
The gang had grown irate during the robbery, the jury was told, unhappy Mr Baldwin wasn't revealing more money, and they only decided to leave when the pig farmer feigned a heart attack, it was heard, and told them he was dying.
One of them, brandishing two guns, told him: "Don't call the police for an hour, cos if you do I'll come back and kill you."
The trial, expected to last several weeks, continues.
