A prisoner has denied plotting a home invasion from behind bars to pay for a "mix-up" that saw him accidentally take heroin smuggled in for other inmates at Canberra's jail.
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Friends Shane Cringle, 27, and Jackson Allred, 20, are on trial in the ACT Supreme Court over allegations they conspired to commit a robbery at a home in Canberra's north in May 2011.
Prosecutors allege the pair came up with the plan to pay off a $450 drug debt Cringle was left owing after accidentally consuming drugs that had been smuggled in for other prisoners in the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
It is alleged that Cringle organised for his friend Allred and others to go to a Florey home and take money to return the debt.
Authorities intercepted phone calls made from the prison by Cringle, and police swooped on the car outside the Florey address, finding weapons and drug paraphernalia.
But Cringle, who gave evidence in the witness box on Wednesday, denied there was ever any plan to commit robbery or burglary.
He said he had asked Allred to go to the house to collect cannabis to sell.
Cringle admitted that there was often violence associated with drugs in prison, but said that he did not fear for his life because of the mix-up with the heroin.
The trial continues before acting Justice John Nield.
