A SCRAPYARD worker claimed police hunting for Alrene Fraser had "made things up" in his statements about a mystery car.
Farmer Hector Dick has told the Nat Fraser murder trial that he bought a beige Ford Fiesta on the orders of his one-time friend.
Fraser (53), denies murder and claims Hector Dick could be Arlene’s killer.
When the B-reg Fiesta turned up again on his farm near Elgin, said Mr Dick (56), he burned the vehicle, flattened it and took it to Williamson’s scrap yard on the town’s Moycroft industrial estate.
Murder hunt detectives came to believe the Fiesta had played a part in Arlene’s disappearance from her home in Smith Street, New Elgin, in April 1998, the High Court in Edinburgh has heard.
Their efforts to trace the car included interviewing Dennis Anderson (63), a crane operator at the scrap merchant’s yard.
Colour-blind Mr Anderson told them someone driving a tractor had delivered a maroon fiesta for scrap but the man was only about his height - 5ft 4in. The description did not fit Mr Dick.
But a statement read out in court today also said: "I know the man who has the skip lorries is the brother of the man who brought in the burned out car."
The trial has heard that Hector Dick’s brother, Jimmy, ran such a business as a side-line to their farm.
"Actually, I never said that to the police. I never said that once," protested Mr Anderson.
He added: "Every time I saw it I asked them to score that bit out. They didn’t."
Asked why he had signed the statement as true back in October 1999 Mr Anderson explained: "I never read it because - I am going to admit it - I cannot read.
"I just presumed that what I was told was what was there."
Mr Anderson said he did not know who Hector Dick was until he saw photos of him in newspapers. He was not the man who brought in the Fiesta.
The scrap yard worker agreed with advocate depute Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, that he was making a serious allegation but insisted that when the statement was read to him, after he had finished making it "they never read that bit out to me."
The trial heard that Mr Anderson also said that the person who delivered the Fiesta was "the coalman from Alves’ brother" - another description which would fit Hector Dick.
"No, I never said that, no," said Mr Anderson.
He also said he could not recall ever telling police: "I can definitely say that the Fiesta was not cream in colour. It was almost certainly silver or grey."
"Is this another example of police making things up?" asked Mr Prentice. Mr Anderson told him: "Well, it looks like that."
The trial continues....
