A CHEF who accepted a lift from two strangers told a jury the driver offered to sell him cocaine - and then he and a woman passenger robbed him, a court heard.

Peter Gustaffson was giving his evidence to a Carlisle Crown Court jury via a video link from Stockholm, Sweden.

In the dock was Ian Main, 30, who denies robbery.

As the prosecution began its case, Mr Gustaffson gave his account of what happened on the day he was robbed.

The jury heard that a woman has already admitted her part in the crime.

But Main, of Durham Court, Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, insists he had nothing to do with robbing Mr Gustaffson, who at the time of the robbery in June, 2017, worked as a chef in Greystoke.

He described how he had been at a McDonalds restaurant in Penrith when he encountered a man and a woman at the drive-through facility.

They asked him if he was okay, he told the jury.

Mr Gustaffson said he at that point took his opportunity to ask the two strangers whether they could give him a lift to Greystoke, where he worked.

"They said 'No problem - hop in.'" said Mr Gustaffson.

The man had then drove into Penrith, and his manner of driving was "reckless," said Mr Gustaffson. At one point, he told the jury, the driver was travelling the wrong way along a one-way street.

Near the town's bandstand, the car nearly hit two young men who were trying to cross the road.

"They were screaming at each other," said Mr Gustaffson, who described the driver's behaviour as aggressive. He said he had got out of the car in an attempt to calm the situation.

As they all got back into the car, he said, he began to think that continuing with the lift was a bad idea. He suggested the driver could drop him off in Penrith and he could make his own way home, he said.

He said he told the driver: "Please, can you just drop me off?"

The man stopped the car in the town's B&M store car park, and then offered to sell him cocaine, said Mr Gustaffson.

"I said no - I'm not interested," continued the witness.

He then described what happened next.

"He said to her: 'Get ready,'" said Mr Gustaffson.

"She opened the door and came out to my side and she suddenly grabbed my jacked and dragged me out of the car. She started slapping and hitting me and grabbing at my bag."

Mr Gustaffson said the man also joined in with the attack.

The woman repeatedly told him to let go of his bag as she slapped and hit him, he said.

Describing what he said was Main's role in the robbery, Mr Gustaffson said: "He came out to help her with taking the bag from me. He started slapping and hitting me as well. ..Both of them were pulling at the bag.

"He tried to take my watch. I couldn't handle both of them - heron the right and him on the left."

Then the attack just ended, he said.

Inside the bag was around £700 to £800, clothes, and his passport.

The trial continues.