Walthamstow Guardian: A SECURITY guard was shocked to find a lorry driver bound and gagged in his vehicle which had been robbed of 18,500 bottles of Italian wine on Friday morning.

Ted Carrington was doing his rounds at 5.20am on the Leyton Village Industrial Estate, Argall Avenue, Walthamstow, when he spotted a yellow juggernaut parked in an awkward position.

Inside he discovered the driver with his hands tied behind his back and a gag over his mouth.

Mr Carrington said: "The way the lorry was parked caught my attention. When I shone my torch into the cab, I was shocked to see a man tied up, and his face covered with clear plastic.

"He appeared to be unharmed and was trying to speak through the gag. The lorry had no one else in it and its cargo was missing."

Mr Carrington, from Chingford, said that he had never come across such an incident in the 14 years he has been a security guard.

The Turkish driver, 39, had travelled from Sicily with the bottles of red and white Sicilian wine which were worth tens of thousands of pounds.

He became lost on Thursday at approximately 11pm between the Rotherhithe and Blackwall Tunnels.

He stopped while heading westbound on the A13 to ask directions from a driver in a white van. A man described as black with a goatee beard got out of the van and pointed a gun at him.

A second man, also black and with a knife, also got out of the van. The lorry driver told police that a third man was in the driver's seat of the white van, and he appeared to be Asian.

He was tied up and bundled into the sleeping compartment of his lorry and taken to an unknown location. His cargo was then removed from the Scania lorry, which was driven to Argall Avenue.

The lorry driver was not harmed by his hijackers, but was left tied up until Mr Carrington found him. The lorry had white curtain sides and the company name of Ehrlich on it.

The Robbery Squad is now investigating the incident. If you can offer information, call 8217 3819.Security guard Ted Carrington, who found the driver tied up in his lorry s=7(01/2084/21A)s=10A SECURITY guard was shocked to find a lorry driver bound and gagged in his vehicle which had been robbed of 18,500 bottles of Italian wine on Friday morning.o

Ted Carrington was doing his rounds at 5.20am on the Leyton Village Industrial Estate, Argall Avenue, Walthamstow, when he spotted a yellow juggernaut parked in an awkward position.

Inside he discovered the driver with his hands tied behind his back and a gag over his mouth.

Mr Carrington said: "The way the lorry was parked caught my attention. When I shone my torch into the cab, I was shocked to see a man tied up, and his face covered with clear plastic.

"He appeared to be unharmed and was trying to speak through the gag. The lorry had no one else in it and its cargo was missing."

Mr Carrington, from Chingford, said that he had never come across such an incident in the 14 years he has been a security guard.

The Turkish driver, 39, had travelled from Sicily with the bottles of red and white Sicilian wine which were worth tens of thousands of pounds.

He became lost on Thursday at approximately 11pm between the Rotherhithe and Blackwall Tunnels.

He stopped while heading westbound on the A13 to ask directions from a driver in a white van. A man described as black with a goatee beard got out of the van and pointed a gun at him.

A second man, also black and with a knife, also got out of the van.

The lorry driver told police that a third man was in the driver's seat of the white van, and he appeared to be Asian.

He was tied up and bundled into the sleeping compartment of his lorry and taken to an unknown location. His cargo was then removed from the Scania lorry, which was driven to Argall Avenue.

The lorry driver was not harmed by his hijackers, but was left tied up until Mr Carrington found him. The lorry had white curtain sides and the company name of Ehrlich on it.

The Robbery Squad is now investigating the incident. If you can offer information, call 8217 3819.

November 16, 2001 14:30