ONE of the alleged assassins of Chorley accountant David Wilson was a Falklands War veteran, a court heard this week.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that Stephen Playle was arrested at his Sidcup flat four years after the murder.

When interviewed he told police he was a Private in the parachute regiment for just under three years and had served in Oman, Canada and the Falkand Islands, said det sgt Duncan Gee.

The court was told that Kent men Playle, 35, of Sidcup, and his co-accused Michael Crossley, 34, of North Fleet, who also served in the armed forces, were hired to kill Mr Wilson by American Michael Austin who is serving life for the murder. Both deny the murder.

Mr Henry Globe QC prosecuting earlier told the jury that Mr Wilson, 47, had been executed because of his involvement in a multi-million dollar cigarette fraud masterminded by Austin which was in the course of being uncovered and investigated by police.

Austin arranged for the killing from America through his linkman in this country, Stephen Schepke, claimed Mr Globe. Schepke is serving life for aiding an abetting the murder, he added.

David Wilson, aged 47, was taken from his home and shot twice in the head in the garage of his Withnell Villa home, Withnell, on March 5, 1992, because he had spoken to the fraud squad about the plot, it was claimed.

Crossley also denies false imprisoning Mr Wilson's 31-year-old daughter Michelle. Playle, whose fingerprints were found on tape used to bind Mr Wilson's hands, has admitted falsely imprisoning her.

Playle and Crossley were life-long friends, their relationship described as brotherly. They and Oldham-born Schepke were regulars at the Black Horse pub in Sidcup, Kent.

Mr Globe also told the jury that residents of Withnell had noticed an oldish, red Vauxhall Chevette in the village on the night of the shooting and that Crossley's wife Alison had such a vehicle and he often used it.

After Schepke was arrested a few days after the shooting the phone numbers of both Playle and Crossley were found to be in his address book and on scraps of paper in his wallet.

Jottings were also found in his wallet about Austin and Mr Wilson, he added.

A few weeks before the shooting, Crossley had travelled north with Schepke to find someone in Lancashire.

He was apparently armed and ready to use extreme violence if the need arose," claimed Mr Globe.

The trial continues.

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