One of the men accused of holding up a store with a BB gun and taser - in which the shopkeeper was shot in the neck - has claimed he was just trying to sell the weapons.

Lithuanian-born Alex Saprykin said he needed to raise money and thought he could get cash at the International Foods shop in Ramsgate.

He said he often went into the store to borrow money from the store's owner, leaving his passport in exchange.

He told a jury how he went into the High Street store with the weapons in his open palms and asked the assistant, Ibrahim Ahmedi: “How much money?”

Saprykin, 40, who denies attempted robbery, added that Mr Ahmedi “jumped up and a fight started.”

Speaking through an interpreter Saprykin said he had no intention of robbing the store and couldn’t explain how a silver ball bearing from the gun struck Mr Ahmedi through the throat.

Asked by prosecutor Peter Forbes: “Are you suggesting he shot himself?”, Saprykin answered: “I don’t know but 100% it was not my finger on the gun."

Mr Forbes asked why the gun was fired “five or six times” during the incident.

The defendant said: “I don’t know but this was definitely not a robbery.”

More than two and a half weeks later Saprykin was arrested by police at Detling Hill, near Maidstone, claiming he was going to hand himself in to police.

But when interviewed by officers, he replied “no comment” to most of the questions, claiming he was acting on advice from his solicitor.

Ryan Diggens, 23, of Trove Court, and Saprykin of Chapel Place, both Ramsgate, both deny charges of attempted robbery and three firearms charges.

The judge will begin summing up this morning.