Alleged robber ‘was supplied £5,000 to participate in £1.1million watch heist’ earlier than salesman took his personal life, courtroom hears

An alleged robber was promised £5,000 to take part in a £1.1 million watch raid before a salesman took his own life, a court was told. 

Junior Kunu, 31, said he was offered thousands to take part in a ‘consented’ raid in Richmond on May 25 last year.  

Kunu was caught on CCTV footage grabbing the watches while Kyle Mehmet, 40, held Oliver White, 27, in a headlock, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Kunu said he was in a ‘state of shock’ after seeing the footage, which he believed would not exist because the heist was an ‘inside job’.

Salesman Mr White, 27, who was accused of not resisting the raiders by the store’s owners in a tense meeting a day after the heist, took his own life hours later. 

He was found dead by a friend in woods near Shepperton where he played as a boy. 

Mehmet had held Mr White in a headlock while Junior Kunu, 31, swiped the watches, including a Rolex Sky Dweller from 247 Kettles on Kew Road, the court heard 

Michael Holmes, 34, is said to have been part of an aborted robbery at the shop two days earlier.

Wearing a black suit, Kunu told his defence barrister Alan Kent KC he ‘hesitated’ when Mehmet – known to him as ‘B’ – began manhandling Mr White during the theft.

He told the court he knew Mehmet was going to grab White and ‘knew it was going to happen’ but was ‘startled’. 

Kunu said Mehmet saw he was ‘startled’ and told him to ‘stick to the plan.’ He told the court: ‘That’s when I knew: just get the watches, this is consented.’

He said he did not wear a mask, gloves, a hood, any form of disguise or have a weapon because he was told ‘not to have any of those things.’

‘When I was next to Mr Mehmet, he told me to stand next to Oliver, I think just so that it looks legitimate,’ Kunu said. 

He then got into an Audi A3 with Mehmet, where he emptied his pockets of any watches before stopping and changing into a different vehicle, he told jurors.

He said he did not know where he was going but expected to be paid the agreed £5,000 and dropped off home.

However, Kunu was taken to a new location instead, where described being patted down and told to wait ‘five to ten minutes’ by Mehmet.

‘I probably waited there for around 40 minutes because I was watching the football – Man Utd was playing Manchester City in the FA Cup Final,’ he told the court.

‘I was sitting down on the pavement watching it.’

The 31-year-old said he eventually returned to his former partner’s address, where she showed him footage of the robbery circulating on social media.

Kunu said: ‘My phone is just going crazy, people are calling asking about what I’ve done, I’m confused now because I didn’t know what was going on.

‘I was in a state of shock because I was told that the CCTV was nothing. I was told not to worry about the CCTV.

‘I thought everything was going to just disappear, I was told it was staged, I was in a state of disbelief.’

When asked of his reaction after finding out Mr White had died, Kunu said: ‘I couldn’t believe it.

‘I was shocked – now I’m even more confused, I didn’t know what was going on. I can’t put into words how I felt.’

He spent his time inside the home from May 26 until the day he handed himself in, Kunu told jurors. 

‘I was doing was sleeping – I didn’t even want to wake up, I thought I was dreaming,’ he said. ‘I was living a nightmare.’

The alleged robber was also never paid for his involvement in the jewellery store raid, he told the court.  

‘I didn’t want anything to do with it, I forgot about the money – someone’s lost their life,’ Kunu said.

‘The minute I heard about that I forgot about the money, I wanted to just stay away from it all.’

Cross examining Kunu, junior prosecutor William Cholerton, said he must have known ‘there was something risky’ about being paid £5,000 for a morning’s work.

‘I don’t perform robberies – that’s not me, I don’t do robberies, if I got told this was a real robbery I would never have been there,’ Kunu responded.

‘I would have said no for any amount, never.’

Mr Cholerton pressed Kunu on the ‘mystery friend and associate’ who asked him to help out with the heist.

The alleged jewellery store raider said he did not want to name the mystery man because naming him could put his family at risk. 

He told jurors he had been working at Evri in early 2024 but as of May had no income and £5,000 represented ‘a lot of money’.

Kunu, of south London, Mehmet, of Rotherham and Holmes, of Essex, all deny conspiracy to rob.

Jurors were told Mannix Pedro, Surrey, has already been tried and convicted of conspiracy to rob.

The trial continues.

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