A millionaire on trial for kidnapping two businessmen was posing as a waiter that day to catch out a pal who was cheating on his girlfriend, a court was heard today.

Volker Kappler, 37, delivered a pizza to the couple in their hotel room, claimed the friend, security installer Heath Robinson.

He said that Kappler told him later he pulled the ruse at The Cavendish Hotel in Chester because he wanted to see what the woman was like.

Angela Upshal, Robinson's girlfriend of eight years said he was supposed to take her out to a bistro for lunch in Rhyl but he phoned saying he had to work late.

That night Robinson and a worker repaired the security system in Kappler's plastics factory in Mold, Flint. They told the Teesside Crown Court trial that they did not see Kappler and that the Superflexibles factory was empty.

Prosecuter Peter Johnson challenged worker Michael Whitehead: "Can I suggest that you would have seen Volker Kappler and a white Transit van and a number of men, and two men with hoods over their head?

"You have come here to tell lies to the jury and this is a pack of lies isn't it ?".

Mr Whitehead replied: "I don't tell lies for anybody, and I don't even know Mr Kappler."

Kappler said that later that evening he returned home to his wife in Conwy, North Wales, and watched The Simpsons on television.

John Wood,36, and David Langthorne,40, alleged that they were kidnapped in Hartlepool, Teesside, by bogus Customs men and taken to Kappler's factory where he told them they would be killed unless they handed over #600,000 which was owed by an associate company.

Mr Kappler giving evidence denied that he made the demand because he was facing financial ruin.

Mr Kappler said that on the day of the alleged kidnapping he was in Chester at teatime and he arrived hom at 7.30pm.

He was certain about the time because Coronation Street was starting and his wife wanted to watch it. He said she recorded the soap allowing him to watch The Simpsons.

Mr Wood and Mr Langthorne claimed they were grabbed at Wood's industrial hose factory in Hartlepool, Teesside, by men in identical navy baseball caps and bomber jackets with metal badges, two -way radios and nightsticks and handcuffs.

Their captors said they were a Customs and Excise Investigation team but referred to each other by numbers.

They threatened to cut off Mr Langthorne's ear with a knife and guns were held to their heads. They said they would kill the business partners, rape Wood's wife Barbara and also kill her and their children and cousins, alleged prosecutor Peter Johnson.

The bosses were beaten, bundled into a white Transit van, hooded with pillowcases and driven 300 miles to North Wales. There they were stripped and made to change into tracksuits and trainers before they were led singly into a darkened office at a plastics factory in Mold, Flint.

A gun was rammed into the back of Wood's head, and they were quizzed by two men about a £800,000 VAT repayment they had shared.

One man alleged to be millionaire businessman Volker Kappler,37, told them that Paul Thompson, a business associate of theirs, owed him £600,000.

Kappler, who told police that he was worth a few million pounds, demanded £600,000 from them saying "Paul Thompson has f..... my business up."

They said that the money had been transferred to Dubai in the Arab Emirates. Kappler set a deadline of four days for them to pay it, and a piece of paper with bank details for the payment was stuffed in Wood's tracksuit bottoms, alleged Mr Johnson.

They were dumped with pillowcases over their heads in a field beside the M53 near Eastham on the Wirral. Police had been alerted after Wood's Porsche and factory Asguard UK Ltd in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, Teesside, were found unlocked.

They were so terrified that they arranged the £600,000 transfer from Dubai but then cancelled it and called the police.

Kappler's firm Superflexibles supplied Thompson's firm VPS in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, which sold hoses to Asguard and Langthorne's company Formel E.

They sold the hose to Tazar Industries in Dubai, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Kappler denied any part in the kidnapping and said that their stories were "total nonsense". The kidnap clothing was sold by an Asda store in Queensferry, and Kappler was filmed on the store's security video.

Kappler of The Black Lion Hotel, Llanfairtalh, Conwy, pleads not guilty to two charges of kidnapping and two of blackmail for £600,000 in March.

The case continues.