A security guard accused of robbing more than £300,000 from a Securicor cash van has told a jury how he had undergone extensive training with the firm.

During a police interview read out at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Amir Hussain said he had worked for Securicor for six months and had been trained in cash van procedures.

The interview followed his arrest the day after the robbery at the Crown Point Retail Park, Leeds, in January 2002, the jury was told.

Hussain, 23, of Horton Grange Road, Great Horton, and Fahim Azam, 23, of Farnham Road, Great Horton, both deny carrying out the robbery.

The jury has been told that Mohammed Farooq, 22, of Hollingwood Lane, Lidget Green, pleaded guilty to robbery after his fingerprints were found on a bag left behind at the scene. Philip Standfast, prosecuting, told the jury that Hussain had set the job up from the inside and was helped by the two other men.

He said that a Securicor investigator had found a number of unusual factors at the scene of the robbery.

Breaking company policy, Hussain had let the robbers into the van. He had also failed to store the money collected during the afternoon in the separate time-locked safes as he was supposed to.

Hussain, a second year economics student at the University of Bradford at the time of the offence, told police he had worked for Securicor for six months, mainly at weekends.

He said he had carried out tests and watched videos of how to operate the van's cash boxes and security systems during his training. He said he often stayed in the van while a colleague made the collections and he added: "I knew my job well."

The trial continues.