SOUTH Newton villager Hugh Smith told an Old Bailey jury how he saw Kenneth Regan working at the back of a van parked in the freshly-washed driveway of his father's home in Forge Close.

Regan (55), said to have killed businessman Anil Chohan and his four relatives to steal his multi-million-pound freight business, also hurriedly bought a new carpet and suite from shops in Salisbury for the home he shared with his father.

The prosecution claims that Mr Chohan (46) was held at the home in Forge Close and his body was driven away in a van.

Mr Smith, a neighbour, told the court he had lived in Forge Close for more than 40 years and knew Regan's father, Roy Avery.

He said he remembered seeing a white van outside the house in late January or early February 2003.

"It was a frosty morning. I got up to put the refuse out," he told the jury. "I pulled the curtains open and I could see Mr Regan's back door was open and the light was on.

"A white van was backed up to the garden gate on one side of the bungalow.

"That was in the early hours. It was just after seven in the morning."

He said Regan said hello to him as he put the rubbish bag on the pavement.

"Mr Regan was near the van. The path was more or less at the back of the van. It looked wet, as though it had been washed. It hadn't rained."

Mr Smith said that when he looked out of his window after breakfast an hour later the van had gone.

The court heard how Regan replaced the flooring in the front room of the house with a remnant from Carpet Right in Salisbury.

He told the saleswoman he wanted a piece which would not show stains because his father was "a dirty old man".

Saleswoman Amy Hazard later told police how he had ordered a three-piece suite, including a reclining chair, from Courts in Salisbury.

"He said he didn't want a long sales pitch. He was in a rush to complete the purchase," she said in a statement read to the court.

"I tried to point out there was a defect on the reclining mechanism.

"He didn't care. He didn't ask for a discount."

When the suite was taken to the house, the delivery man noticed the room was bare and there was no sign of the old furniture.

Regan's father, Roy Avery, gave a statement to the police about the refurbishment ten days before he died on May 19, 2003, the court heard.

It read: "It was only a few weeks ago. Ken had mentioned before he wanted a new sofa.

"One day I went out of the house and when I returned Ken was in the house and the carpet was missing. I had only been out for about two hours. I noticed on the floor in the lounge a white paper. Ken said he was in the money and decided to change the carpet and sofa. About two weeks later the sofa and chair arrived."

Regan came to live with his father after leaving prison in 2002 and worked as a cleaner at Salisbury railway station.

Mr Avery said his son then claimed to be working near Heathrow Airport for a company importing fruit into the country.

Regan told him about a friend called "Mike" who was a foreman at the company and was in "trouble" because he owed the Indian boss money.

"He also said the Indian man owed money to the tax man and had done a midnight flit."

Mr Avery also told how his son had changed his name to Regan "because he said he didn't like the name Avery".

The prosecution claims that Regan and two accomplices murdered Mr Chohan, his wife Nancy (25), their sons Devinder (18 months) and Ravinder (eight weeks) and his mother-in-law Charanjit Kaur (51).

Mr Chohan, from Sutton Road, Hounslow, was last seen on February 16, 2003 in Salisbury.

Regan, together with former accountant William Horncy (52), of Adeline Road, Bournemouth, and Peter Rees (39), of Kings Close, Rowlands Castle, Portsmouth, all deny five charges of murder between February 14 and April 23, 2003.

They further deny the false imprisonment of Mr Chohan between February 12 and April 28, 2003.

The trial continues.