A former Suffolk man accused of being involved in a burglary at the home of an Essex couple who were allegedly stunned with an electroshock weapon before being assaulted and tied up by two men has denied ever going to the property.

Giving evidence during his trial at Ipswich Crown court Barry Sharp said that on the day of the raid at the bungalow in Halstead Road, Fordham near Colchester he’d arranged to meet a friend for breakfast but had got lost.

He accepted driving past the bungalow in one direction and then turning back and driving past it again at around the time of the burglary but said he didn’t know anything about it

Sharp said on November 17 2018 he had got up early and had driven from his home in Thurston to mother’s house in Edmonton to collect some money.

He had then driven towards Colchester with the intention of meeting a friend before going into Colchester with him to have breakfast.

However after getting lost he had headed straight back home.

Sharp, 45, formerly of Thurston and Gary Thompson, 46, of Sidney Road, in Ludlow, Shropshire have denied conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.

The alleged victims were at their home when two men arrived in a van pretending to be delivering a bouquet of flowers.

When the woman who lived there said they had the wrong address and tried to shut the door the men barged in and tasered her.

They pushed her into the living room and asked if she had any money buried in the garden.

When she said no she was allegedly hit in the face causing her to fall on to a sofa.

Her husband, who’d been in an outbuilding when he heard his wife screaming, came in to the house with a third member of the gang who’d been waiting outside.

He struggled with the intruders but was then allegedly assaulted before being shocked with the stun gun.

His wife was taken to a bedroom where her hands were tied with cable ties and her head covered with a piece of clothing.

Her husband was forced to open a safe which contained cash and two gold necklaces and his hands were tied before the intruders left the property.

Thompson’s DNA profile was allegedly found on cable ties used during the burglary while mobile phone cell site and ANPR ( Automatic Number Plate Recognition) camera evidence allegedly linked Sharp to the offence.

Thompson has chosen not to give evidence.

The trial continues.