Watch raid staged and shop boss knew, court told

An alleged robbery in which £1.38m worth of watches were stolen from a shop in south-west London was "staged" and everyone involved consented, including a store manager who later took his life, a court has heard.

Junior Kunu, 30, and Mannix Pedro, 37, deny conspiring with others to commit a robbery in which 70 luxury watches were stolen from 247 Kettles in Richmond, on 25 May last year.

Giving evidence at Woolwich Crown Court, Mr Kunu repeatedly said: "This was not a robbery, this was staged", adding he was to be paid £5,000 for putting watches into a bag.

The store's office manager Oliver White, 27, took his life the following day "as a direct result" of the raid, jurors were previously told.

Mr Kunu told the court he had been recruited to take part in a fake robbery, believing it to be an insurance scam. If he had thought it was genuine, he would not have taken part, he said.

"I knew that the person in the shop was going to comply. I knew that I was going to put watches in the bag and I had to do nothing else," he told the court.

Two other men said to have been involved in the raid - Michael Ashman and Kyle Bowrage - are still at large, having fled abroad soon afterwards.

In court, Mr Kunu claimed Mr Bowrage had told him what was going to happen and that it all went according to plan.

"He told me that Oliver White was going to comply, he complied," he told jurors.

"He told me that police was not going to get called, they didn't get called.

"He told me that he (Mr White) wasn't going to press the panic button or anything and he didn't."

Mr Kunu told the court that if it had been a real robbery, Mr White would have pressed the panic button or "kicked up a fuss".

He added that although Mr White was put in a headlock and cable ties were used on him, it was "role play" to "make the whole thing look real".

The court heard Mr Kunu had been asked to take part in the scheme by an unnamed man, because he knew Mr Kunu wanted to make some money.

"I feel like he knew that I was just... I'm naive. He knew that I was naive," he said.

When giving evidence last week, Connor Thornton, the store's co-owner, denied believing the incident was an "inside job", while Mr White's mother, Amy Keane, described him as a "really hardworking young man" who was "devastated by the robbery".

Woolwich Crown Court previously heard that Mr White tried to transfer £14,000 of his own savings to his bosses after the robbery.

Mr Kunu, of Mitcham, south-west London, is accused of entering the shop to carry out the robbery, while Mr Pedro, of Cobham, Surrey, is accused of helping to plan it.

The trial continues.

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