Corry Street's Terry 'preparing to meet police'

Coronation Street star Nigel Pivaro was today said to be preparing to meet detectives who want to quiz him over allegations he tried to take a gun on a cross-channel hovercraft.

Kent Police said they had spoken to the solicitor acting for the star, who plays bad boy Terry Duckworth in the soap, to set up an interview.

He has denied accusations that he had sped away from Dover Hoverport after security officers tried to search him on suspicion of carrying a gun, saying he was only carrying a mobile phone.

Mr Pivaro’s mother said she was ‘‘very worried’’ about her son.

Victoria Pivaro said she had not spoken to him since the drama unfolded in Dover on Wednesday.

She said: ‘‘What mother wouldn’t be? I last saw him on Monday and had a meal with him. He was going abroad to see his sister who lives in Italy.

‘‘He’s doing a degree in military history at Salford University so whether that’s got anything to do with it or not I don’t know.’’

The drama began when Pivaro checked in for the 4pm crossing from Dover, and was asked to go through routine security checks.

Hoverspeed said he was taken to the search and security area, where he was given a frisk search.

Spokesman Nick Stevens said: ‘‘Our male search team member then said to him, ‘You seem to be wearing a shoulder holster with a gun’, to which he began to reply that it was either imitation or replica.

‘‘At that moment he then jumped into the car and sped off at the rate of knots out of the Hoverport.’’

Kent Police said the man, who was ‘‘nervous and agitated’’ did a U-turn and drove through security checks and bollards in his Audi A4 car, driving at 45mph in a 15mph area.

Pivaro said he ‘‘had had enough’’ with security procedures at the Hoverport and ‘‘did not like the way he was treated’’ by security guards, so decided to drive away.

The actor, who quit Corrie in 1987 but has made return appearances, told a reporter he did not even own a gun, adding that he had spoken to his lawyer and was not on the run.