A DOCTOR has told a jury how one of his former colleagues asked him to repay a loan which it is claimed was used to fund a terror plot.

Mohammed Asha, who worked at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, and fellow doctor Bilal Abdulla are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court accused of conspiring to murder and cause explosions in London and Glasgow last June.

Yesterday, the court heard from Dr Mohammed Ahmed, who first met Asha, when both men were training in Cambridge in 2003.

Dr Ahmed told the court Asha, of Sunningdale Grove, Chesterton, asked him to repay a £1,000 loan to him in May 2007.

The prosecution says that Asha, aged 28, handed this amount to Abdulla, along with £300 of his own money, and it would later be used to purchase the vehicles and equipment used in the failed bombing attempts.

Dr Ahmed said: "I was going to Bangladesh to get married, but I was short of cash. So I asked him if he could lend me some money, and he agreed."

Dr Ahmed said that a few weeks later Asha contacted him and asked him to pay back the money, saying he was going to Jordan to see his parents.

The jury was told Asha travelled to Dr Ahmed's home in Walsall on May 26 to get the money, and left after 45 minutes, saying he had to work that evening.

Mr Laidlaw, prosecuting, said that shortly before midnight Asha met up with Abdulla, who had travelled to North Staffordshire from his home in Glasgow. It was at this meeting that Asha allegedly handed over the £1,300 to his co-defendant.

DS Bruce Mascall, who was involved in the investigation into the attacks, said this theory was supported by a note in Asha's filofax, which read: "May Bilal 1300".

In cross-examining Dr Ahmed, Stephen Kamlish, defending Asha, asked him about conversations he had with his client about the situation in Iraq.

Mr Kamlish said: "Dr Asha said that resistance was one thing, but terrorism is something else. Do you recall him saying that?"

Dr Ahmed said he could not remember Asha saying those words but admitted that the defendant had said that "education is the way forward in Iraq".

Mr Kamlish asked: "You would not have been friends with someone who espoused the ways of violence?"

Dr Ahmed replied: "Certainly not."

Mr Kamlish also put it to Dr Ahmed that Asha had never explicitly said he needed the £1,000 for a trip to Jordan, and the witness admitted that may have been the case.

DS Mascall went on to tell the jury that over the next few weeks, Abdulla and co-conspirator Kafeel Ahmed visited various towns and cities purchasing five vehicles, including the two Mercedes used in the attempted bombing in London and the Jeep used to attack Glasgow Airport. The officer said that Abdulla kept in regular contact with Asha throughout this period.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard that Kafeel Ahmed, who died from burn injuries after the attack in Glasgow, came to stay with Mohammed Asha in Newcastle immediately after arriving in this country.

Ahmed had previously been studying in India, but flew in to Heathrow Airport on May 5, 2007. The prosecution says that mobile phone evidence and receipts show that Bilal Abdulla travelled down to London to meet Ahmed on that day.

The jury was told phone records then show the pair moving north and that Ahmed had earlier told Abdulla, via an internet chat service, that he wanted to "meet Mo on the way".

The court was told that after spending the night with Asha in Newcastle, Abdulla and Ahmed then continued on their journey north to Scotland, their hire car being captured on CCTV leaving North Staffordshire.

The trial continues.