Maxine Robinson tells trial she thought lorries were delivering shop-fitting parts

Maxine Robinson, 39, said she believed wagon deliveries to a Bradford business where she was company secretary were shop-fitting parts.

Robinson and her former partner Andrew Varey, 43, who ran Varey Shopfitters, of Jubilee Way, Windhill, Shipley, deny conspiracy to supply drugs.

The pair, whose relationship ended in the spring of 2008, say they had no idea lorry-loads of drugs were allegedly being dropped off at the company.

The jury at Bradford Crown Court has heard they were arrested after French customs seized one and a half tonnes of heroin and cannabis with a street value of £10 million bound for Varey Shopfitters on August 14, 2008.

The Crown’s case is that the delivery was the 14th similar consignment to arrive at the premises from Holland.

Robinson, who went to live at a caravan park in Filey after her relationship with Varey ended, told the court today she continued to work for Varey Shopfitters.

She kept the business going through the summer of 2008 with the aim of winding it up.

In March that year, a wagon arrived at the company without warning. She challenged the driver before signing for its load. Robinson told the jury she had struggled to build up a business and wanted to help a man who had rented part of their premises.

“I felt that it was a small business, like ourselves, and that I was helping out and doing a favour,” she said.

She said the man paid towards the £500 monthly rent on the Jubilee Way premises that still had a year to run on the lease.

When she was arrested, it was “a shocking, surreal, scary experience”, Robinson said. She made no comment in her police interview because she was “petrified”.

Prosecutor Jason Pitter alleges the couple allowed the company premises to be used for drugs deliveries because the business was in decline and Varey feared losing his house in Fairbank Place, Shipley.

The trial continues.

• Read the full story in Tuesday's T&A