A career criminal who nearly lost his life during

A career criminal who nearly lost his life during a vicious house raid told the Old Bailey today (fri) how the robbery was all part of an insurance fiddle.

Father-of-two Victor Hanchard, 40, claimed that the alleged victim Andrew Achilleos, 46, recruited him to play the part of a burglar and offered him a cut of the proceeds.

But Hanchard said that the plan went wrong when Mr Achilleos, the manager of several video stores in southeast London, suddenly started knifing him for no explicable reason.

Hanchard told the jury that his two accomplices in the scheme fled from the detached house in Eltham while he rolled around on the bedroom floor in agony.

The trial has heard how Hanchard was critically ill after the stabbing and he could not be interviewed by police for some seven months.

The prosecution allege that Hanchard, and two other men who have never been caught, forced their way into the house in Crouch Croft, Eltham, and ransacked the bedroom looking for valuables.

Gold and diamond jewellery worth up to pnds stlg 9,000 was pocketed during the robbery, it was said.

Mr Achilleos’s wife Danuta Kowalewski has told the court how she was dragged upstairs by her hair and forced to lie on her bed facedown while her husband opened the safe.

The couple were repeatedly told they would be stabbed, and when Hanchard put his knife down to get at the safe, Mr Achilleos took the opportunity to stab him.

During the struggle the knife ended up embedded in Mr Achilleos’s hand and he ended up losing the use of two fingers.

Jocelyn Sparks, prosecuting, said Hanchard fled several streets away and ended up collapsing on a doorstep.

He left a trail of blood leading back to Mr Achilleos’s home.

Giving evidence Hanchard told the court he has two sons but lost a third child after a medical blunder at Great Ormond Street Childrens’ Hospital.

He then revealed his ‘substantial’ criminal record to the jury which includes convictions for dishonesty dating back to 1975.

Hanchard said he has appeared at the Old Bailey twice before – the last time being in 1996 for armed robbery.

He then told how he first met Mr Achilleos last year through a dishonest friend:

‘My friend told me he (Achilleos) buys stolen goods.

I sold him a sovereign ring and a bracelet.

‘

Hanchard, who confessed to a drugs problem, also claimed that Mr Achilleos, who drove a smart BMW, dealt in cocaine and heroin.

And on one occasion he said he sold some blank video tapes to Mr Achilleos in return for half a gramme of cocaine.

Hanchard said that in July last year Mr Achilleos visited him at his girlfriend’s address in Lewisham and discussed the insurance scam with him:

‘He asked me to stage a robbery at his house for the insurance.

I agreed to go along with it.

He said only his wife and him would be there and he told me she was in on it as well.

‘He told me to get a couple of geezers to make it look like a real robbery.

.

.

to convince the police.

‘

Hanchard claimed Mr Achilleos also told him about his marital troubles and said to him:

‘He was having problems with some guy who was messing around with his wife.

‘

On July 21 last year Hanchard said he and two other men went to the house in Eltham and smashed their way through the front door to make it look like a real raid.

Once there he said Mr Achilleos led them upstairs to his safe:

‘He agreed he would give us half of what was in the safe but he didn’t mention how much.

He said there was money and cocaine (in the safe).

‘Mr Achilleos went down on his knees and he was trying to open the safe.

His wife was a bit hysterical.

She was sitting on the bed and I started to believe that she was not in on it by the way she was acting.

‘I said: ‘What’s the matter with her.

‘

‘As soon as I opened my mouth he (Achilleos) went to stab me on the side of my head.

I went down on the floor.

I went dizzy.

He was over me and I got stabbed in the side.

‘The other two men just went out of the room.

I was in a panic.

I grabbed hold of his hand and snapped the blade in half.

I cut two fingers.

‘I tried to get out of his house because I felt like I was going to be killed.

”

Hanchard said after a bloody struggle he managed to get out and run several streets away before collapsing on a doorstep.

But he offered no explanation as to why Mr Achilleos decided to stab him.

Hanchard, who was staying with a girlfriend at an address in Northbrook Road, Lewisham at the time of the incident, denies robbery and false imprisonment.

ends