A CARMARTHENSHIRE teenager has described how he fainted in terror when two masked men armed with a gun burst into his home demanding money.
Benjamin White passed out when he feared he was going to be shot, jurors heard.
The 17-year-old was yesterday giving evidence at the trial of two Swansea men accused of stealing �38,000 in a robbery at Four Roads, near Kidwelly.
The prosecution case is that the hold-up at the Mountain Crest smallholding last year was carried out by Paul Andrew Davies, aged 41, of Gwalia Terrace, Gorseinon, and Anthony Lewis, aged 44, of Clifton Court, Treboeth.
At Swansea Crown Court both defendants deny joint charges of robbery and being armed with an imitation firearm — namely a blank-firing pistol. Davies further denies money-laundering by spending �6,480 on a car the day after the robbery.
When arrested, Davies refused to answer detectives' questions and Lewis denied any involvement.
But, opening the prosecution case on Monday, barrister Jim Davis claimed there was "compelling" evidence linking the pair to the incident — involving fingerprints, DNA, a mobile phone and Lewis's Mercedes car.
The court heard that when the robbery occurred Benjamin White was at home with his 29-year-old brother Jonathan White, while their 28-year-old brother Jamie White was away serving a prison sentence.
Jamie White had hidden �26,000 in one of the outbuildings, while Jonathan White was keeping �9,000 in his bedroom and there was a further �3,000 in a former chicken shed.
The prosecution case is that, when they turned up, one of the defendants pointed a gun at Jonathan White's face, yelling: "Where's the money? You know why we're here. Jamie owes us money."
Jonathan White handed over all the money after also allegedly being threatened with "petrol and lighters".
Giving evidence over a video-link on day two of the trial, Benjamin White admitted being the owner of the �3,000 that was hidden in a plastic container in the former chicken shed.
He said that on the morning of September 14 he was woken by his brother shouting that there were men in the house with a gun.
He then saw a man in a dark jacket pointing a pistol at his brother and him.
"I was terrified," he told the court. "I was frightened I was going to be shot."
The 17-year-old also described how, after seeing a second intruder, he became so scared that he fainted and fell to the floor — and when he came to, his brother said the men had gone.
Asked about descriptions, Benjamin White said the man with the gun had been wearing "goggles or some sort of dark balaclava". The other man's face had been concealed with brown tights, he believed.
When the trial got under way on Monday, the jury watched CCTV footage showing a Mercedes arriving at the smallholding; then, six minutes later, a petrol can being removed from the car; and, three minutes after that, Jonathan White being led — bound with cable ties — towards a chicken shed.
The case continues.
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