A jewellery shop manager took his own life after robbers raided his shop, held him in a headlock and took off with dozens of high-value watches worth more than £1,000,000, a court has heard.
Oliver White, 27, was found in his family’s home in Surrey shortly after the shop he managed was robbed in Richmond, south-west London, on May 25 last year.
Today, Junior Kunu, 30, and Mannix Pedro, 37, went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged with conspiring with others to commit the robbery.
More than 70 watches were taken from the 247 Kettles shop, and prosecutor Edward Brown KC said Mr White took his own life the next day as a ‘direct result’ of the robbery.
Mr Brown told the court the defendants played different roles in the plot, with Kunu having entered the premises to carry out the robbery, while Pedro, who did not attend the shop on May 25, was ‘closely involved in the planning and execution’, including the use of a stolen Audi as one of two getaway cars.
Jurors were shown CCTV in which a man – who cannot be named for legal reasons – put Mr White in a headlock while he was seated on an office chair as another man, allegedly Kunu, stuffed watches into a backpack.
The other man can then be seen restraining Mr White using white cable ties to bind his hands together.
The manager had ‘visible reddening around his neck and wrist’ after the alleged attack, Mr Brown said.
Mr White was first contacted by the conspirators, who posed as prospective buyers, through Instagram and then later on WhatsApp about three months before the robbery, the court heard.
Just days before the robbery, the suspects visited the shop to view watches, pretending they were ‘interested’ in making a purchase.
The first visit was an ‘aborted’ robbery, according to Mr Brown.
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Mr Brown explained that on the day of the robbery, there was ‘nothing’ to make Mr White suspicious about the potential buyers.
In a statement after his death, Mr White’s family said he had been ‘traumatised and unable to speak’ after the robbery.
They said: ‘As a family we are devastated by the loss of our beautiful, funny, loyal boy, who lit up every room he walked into.’
Kunu, of Mitcham, south-west London, and Pedro, of Woking, Surrey, both deny the charges. None of the watches have been recovered, the prosecutor said.
The trial, expected to last two weeks, continues.
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