A FAKE robbery, which saw £185,000 stolen from a post office, was engineered by a member of staff and three accomplices, a court heard.

Post office worker Mohammed Faiyza Iqbal claimed he had been chloroformed by intruders, dressed in white CSI-style boiler suits, who then fled with bags of cash from the Rishton branch, Burnley Crown Court was told.

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But police discovered a discarded glove nearby and found Iqbal had been searching the net for places to obtain chloroform before the ‘raid’, the court heard.

Tim Brennand, prosecuting, told jurors the glove was linked by DNA evidence to Jason Yarwood. Mobile phone records showed Iqbal had made a number of calls to Yarwood’s brother, Terry.

Iqbal, 33, of Maple Crescent, Terry Yarwood, 34, of Ridley Road, and Jason Yarwood, all from Preston, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob the High Street post office between May 22 and June 5, 2015.

Their alleged getaway driver, Avaiz Samad, 22 of Blackpool Road, Ashton-on-Ribble, has denied the conspiracy charge and is on trial.

Mr Brennand said it was the prosecution’s contention that Iqbal and Terry Yarwood had undertaken a ‘dummy run’ for the staged heist.

The court heard a security camera had been vandalised in the early hours of May 22. Mobile phone ‘cell siting’ evidence showed Terry Yarwood was in the area at the time.

On June 5, two men, wearing white paper boiler suits, were said to have held up Iqbal at the post office, using chloroform to subdue him before tying him up by his hands and ankles. He was only discovered later when his sister Samina raised the alarm.

Mr Brennand said the Yarwoods fled in Iqbal’s Vauxhall Corsa, which was found abandoned in Eachill Road.

He told jurors Samad was on hand to give them a lift back to the Preston area in a VW Passat.

Samad was later arrested and initially refused to answer questions about the robbery.

But later, in a prepared statement, he admitted he had given a lift to Terry Yarwood, who said he had been working in the Rishton area, and his brother, but denied any knowledge of a plot to rob the post office.

The trial continues.