A MAN has denied trying to steal thousands of pounds worth of steel and told a jury he hid in a bush until a police dog attacked him.

Andrew Fitzsimons, of St James Cottages, Grove, near Wantage, is on trial charged with one count of burglary at Field Barn Farm, near Abingdon, on May 14 last year.

The 43-year-old is accused of trying to steal between £10,000 and £15,000 of stainless steel from a business unit rented by Caribbean Cookers.

Simon Ward, prosecuting, told the jury how Fitzsimons was discovered and bitten by a police German Shepherd in a nearby field in the early hours.

But yesterday the defendant told Oxford Crown Court he had only been at the site because he owned property there and had seen lights as he drove home.

Giving evidence, Fitzsimons explained how he turned his car’s engine off and coasted up to where the lights were, only to be chased away on foot by men wielding metal bars.

Fitzsimons told the jury he waited for “at least an hour” in a bush before the police dog appeared and attacked him.

He said: “It bit me on the face. All I saw was this big mouth bite me straight in the face and I fell on my back. It was like a dream. It was dragging me round the field like I was a bit of paper.”

The trial continues.